Sleeping Stranger
by aikitty
Summary: WIP AU Inuyasha, the brave hero from far away, has just arrived at where his beloved lays in an enchanted sleep. With a kiss on the lips, she opens her eyes... and they're the wrong color. He's woken up the wrong girl! Based on Sleeping Beauty.
1. Chapter 01: Sweet Dreams

**SLEEPING STRANGER**

Summary: AU Inuyasha, the brave hero from far away, has just arrived at where his beloved lays in an enchanted sleep. With a kiss on the lips, she opens her eyes... and they're the wrong color. It seems he's woken up the wrong girl! Based on _Sleeping Beauty._  
Rating: T (13+) for some language, comic violence, and the occasional perverted act from Miroku.  
Disclaimer: _Inuyasha_ and its characters do not belong to me, but to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz, etc.

**Chapter 01: Sweet Dreams**

KAGOME ROCKED BACK on her heels, cushioned by her rough olive green tunic, and exhaled wearily as her fingers relaxed around a small stone bowl she held cradled in one palm. She dropped her pestle inside the bowl and set it down on the floor as the tools clacked together, and further occupied her fingers with rubbing aches out of her hands that felt so much older than they were. Her long arched neck ached and her tense back ached from staying folded in the same position for such long hours that seemed to stretch on much longer than they ought to have done. She had the energy of her father's warrior spirit, but it did not often like being focused on her mother's task as a village priestess. Her energy wanted to be free and untamed, leaping her onto rooftops and climbing her into trees and scaling her over fences to scare the cows; not devoted to working out medicines and potions and threading warm blankets. But she had not been able to follow in her father's footsteps because her father had died many years ago, well into her early life, and the only trade for her to learn was her mother's, and she had forgone her reckless desires and succumbed to responsibility.

She had the soul for it where she lacked the focus. She was gentle to others by her own sweet nature, although somewhat harsher on her enemies than most of her profession, and she felt a desire to help and protect people especially strongly. And it was for that gentility that she was able to awaken from a deep and dreaming sleep in the gray hours of twilight while other women went on sleeping to see her mother off to a nearby town with her younger brother, where the two had been called for duty, and then wear down her body in tedious, meticulous tasks such as herb-grinding and medicine-making. That morning she wove into small white pouches a remedy for a fever that had been climbing throughout the town, webbing into the young and old alike and causing a sickness that bedded even the most persistent of the village farmers. She herself had not avoided the fever entirely, and the sickness had her eyes feeling hot and tired before the noontime meal approached. But she could not lay down to rest her work; if she did not work, no one would find their health improved, and then the village would suffer further, and her good nature would not let her allow that to come to pass.

Kagome looked down at her knuckles, which had grown knobby with work as the tireless years went by. Her fingertips were calloused from working with a bow to keep the village safe of demon and robber, and her body was thin and lean from the hard work she put into babysitting the village children and the traveling to and from distant towns to deliver both medicine and help. She had once yearned to have a lady's hands and figure, to live in the city and pass her days away with arranging artful flowers and attending balls with her hair held in curls by colorful silk ribbons, skirts voluminous and grandly sewed. But she had given up on that dream when she once met a city lady's daughter, who was angry at the world and assumed that she deserved more than she could be given; and Kagome knew she would rather work always and be happy than to have free reign on the fulfilling of wants and desires and be without wants and desires, although she knew she would eagerly accept a holiday if offered... she would simply no longer yearn for a life she could not have, which would lead her to become as the city lady's daughter had.

With a gentle yawn and the encroaching of sleep, Kagome picked up her mortar and once more began to grind the leafy herbs inside into a cold green mixture. She worked out the tough kinks found in the thickly veined vegetation and was kept awake more by the stringent, spicy smell of the medicinal mash than by the pain in her joints. Even the woody scent of her cottage home, which always smelled warm with sun by that time of day as if heavy with memories of the forest in which the floorboards had grown up, was drowned beneath the powerful smell, as was the cool and earthy scent of the stones constructing the skin of the house. After days of working with it, the smell of the potion never seemed to fade into something agreeable.

Outside, in the late morning breeze of the ending Autumn, Kagome could hear the laughter of the village children as they approached her home. She smiled to herself as she heard a playful screech that ended with a boisterous feminine laugh. The children had all been sick at once, bundled up in their homes and kept from their favorite realm of the outside world in their dark bedrooms, sipping the boiled tea made with the medicine Kagome had ground. Sickly children were ever a thing about which to worry; children withered so quickly, and without such proper and careful tending they would easily fade and die like new flowerbuds in a frost. Kagome was glad of hearing their delighted noise filling the otherwise quiet village once more, which made her tiresome work less folly and more worthwhile.

"Hi, Lady Kagome," one child said as a group of three came into the small cottage, pulling open the heavy oak door wider than it had been and filling the room with clear and bright sunlight.

"Good morning," Kagome replied. "Are you all feeling better?"

"Yeah," another of the children, the only boy of the group, responded as he scrubbed a tiny hand through his dark brown hair. "And I'm sick of being sick!"

"Me, too!"

"Me me me!" the second girl added.

Kagome smiled and asked, "What are we up to today?"

"We're hiding here," the first one said, bringing her voice down to a whisper as she scrunched her nose up, wrinkling it as the other two nodded in agreement.

"Hiding, eh? What did you do now?" Kagome inquired at the same whisper, continuing to prepare medicine and losing eye contact with her company. She was familiar with the children, and her manners vanished in sight of them; informality was easiest and best, and with that she could talk amongst the children as no more than a child herself, and felt with them the connection she had otherwise lost at her apprenticeship.

"Well, we uh... we were playing with our ball by the old well, you know?"

"You mean by Mister Tam's house?"

"Uh, yeah... that's the problem... we accidentally knocked a branch out of his apple tree, and lots of apples, too." The boy of the group gave a smug half-grin as the first girl finished speaking, and he pulled a brown pack from his back and dumped the contents onto the floor in front of Kagome, the fleshy red fruit spilling and rolling across the floorboards. Two of them came to bump and rest against her folded knee.

Kagome laughed. "Old Mister Tam won't notice at all," she assured, picking up an apple and biting into it. "As long as he doesn't catch you down there."

"Oh! And I wanted to ask you, Lady Kagome," began the second girl, her golden-red curls bouncing around her shoulders as she shifted to take something from an almond-colored satchel on her back. Almost reverently, she pulled out a rumpled yellow flower and held it out to Kagome, who looked up at her audience and set her apple down in her lap. The flower was globed and hung heavy on its stem, the petals a pale shade of color that burned into a deep orange by the tips, vibrant and smooth. The girl's little plant lost a petal as she thrust it forward. "What kind of flower is this?"

Kagome smiled and delicately ran a finger along the orbed blossom. "That's a honeybur," she told the three children, who looked on in rapture. They were always awed by Kagome's extensive knowledge of flowers and fruits and vegetables (although significantly less amazed by that, since it was partly her knowledge that kept them all on healthy diets). Any time the children had a question, one which they were often too afraid to ask their parents for fear of seeming silly or saying something wrong, they would come to the apprenticed priestess. She knew something on every subject about which they inquired, and she was never ashamed to lend out answers and knowledge, and she never punished them when they kicked their ball somewhere it did not belong. They had seen her angry only once, and that had been at a teenager who had stolen her younger brother's loaf of bread. They were happy and felt very well-protected to be on her amiable side.

"What's it for?" the girl continued.

"Well," Kagome started to say, going back to her work as she talked. Almost nonchalantly she told them, "You give that flower to someone when you want to make a confession you're too afraid to make. Sometimes you can give it to someone to let them know you're apologizing for something, but mostly you give it to someone when you want to tell them you really, really like them."

The two little girls shrieked happily and the boy gave Kagome a deadpan expression.

"I told you so!" said the girl who held nothing, pointing happily to the heavy-headed flower, whose bud sat nodding against its sepals as its holder moved in an excited flurry.

"Did you want to give it to someone?" asked Kagome.

"Someone gave it to me!" the girl explained shyly, hiding her blush behind her bouncing curls.

"And who was that, Sachet?" the priestess asked with a grin, suspecting the answer already. A little boy had come to her earlier in the week, before the whole group of children had come down ill, and had asked her how to best tell someone you loved them. Kagome had been working on making a match of the two for a long time; she loved to meddle with the love affairs of others, especially the innocent and pure love of children. She wanted to direct it, so that their love always retained that purity and innocence.

"Do you know Eru, Lady Kagome?" the other girl answered slyly. "He gave it to Sasshy this morning."

Kagome smiled brightly, silently congratulating herself on matching up that particular pair. "That's lovely! Did he kiss you?"

"Noooo, of course not!" Sachet yelped, giggling wildly and blushing as her friend laughed in delight, clasping her little hands over her stomach and leaning over as if heartily amused.

"Thank all the goodness," the boy said, sticking out his tongue in disgust as he crossed his thin arms over his chest. "What kind of sissy gives flowers to girls?"

"You gave a flower to me a week ago!" Sachet's friend insisted, fisting her little pale hands against her hips and glaring at her friend. Her laughter had turned into anger at the one male of the group.

"That was because I was _dared_ to!" the boy defended himself with a long-suffering sigh, putting out his bottom lip in a pout and blushing in embarrassment. "I would never give any girl a flower anyway else!"

Kagome smiled and looked back at Sachet. "What are you going to do, Sachet? Do you like him, too?"

"Do we have to talk about feelings?" the boy whined, looking nauseous. He was often impressed by the wisdom of the children's local idol, but even for her he would not suffer the talk of emotions.

"Why don't you and Arow go out and play in the fallow field and eat your apples; Sachet and I will stay here and talk," Kagome suggested peacefully, finally taking a second bite out of the fruit that she had been resting in her lap as she worked.

"Okay," the boy agreed, rushing out of the open door as one little girl followed him, her fingers hooking into the cloth of his tunic to keep in step with him. Kagome almost winced as she watched this action, as she had unknowingly passed this habit on herself. Whenever she had time off from her duties, she went with the village boys into the forest to explore; she was the only girl who wanted to go out adventuring while the others stayed home and taught themselves to read, or sewed pretty things for themselves. Kagome thought her own work was tedious enough and had no desire to remain confined within a house.

Before she had learned to shoot a bow, or when she travelled without it, she had been nervous on getting lost in the woods, and had habitually latched her fingers onto the tunic of whomever walked before her, and it was something that the younger children had picked up from her and practiced themselves. With it they annoyed each other, their siblings, and their parents as they put it into action unnecessarily.

"Lady Kagome?"

"Hmm?" Kagome asked, going back to her medicine once more. "Do you like Eru, too?"

"I think so," Sachet whispered. "But what do I do?"

"Excuse me," came a voice at the door. Kagome looked up from her work and Sachet turned around. Both females blinked at the tall, thickly built man blocking the sunlight streaming in from the old wooden doorframe.

"Can I help you?" Kagome asked. "Sachet, why don't you go outside with Arow and Mar? I'll talk to you again later, okay?"

"Okay," Sachet responded with something of a pout on her round face, bounding past the man agilely and disappearing behind his looming figure as she raced towards the fallow fields where her friends were laid on their backs, chewing the sweet fruit they had stolen.

"Good afternoon," the man said to the apprenticed priestess after a moment's silence. "I was looking for nightly boarding but was unable to find an inn."

Kagome nodded. "We don't have one. There's another village about two miles northwest from here that has an inn, but if your need is immediate you may consider boarding here at the temple. We haven't the nicest accommodations, but enough to keep you for a night."

"That will do," he answered, shifting beneath his extravagantly embroidered traveler's cloak. Kagome was inwardly amazed that he traveled without company worthy of defending him, and she wondered how he warded away bandits from his richly designed clothes and the purse bulging at his hip. He wore no armor but of thin metal buckles around his joints, thick leather boots tightly laced up midcalf, and a thin sword clasped in a carved leather sheath at his side.

"Our village priestess is out of town tonight, but I'm her apprentice and I'll tend you while you stay here. I'm Kagome."

"Well met, Kagome. I am Musou, a lord from the north, and I have traveled far from home on a voyage. Your hospitality is kindly accepted."

"Then my duty is being done. I'll go have a bed prepared. We dine at the time the sun sets here in the temple; please feel free to do as you wish until then," she replied, setting aside the work that had occupied her time. She stood and retreated deeper into the building, padding softly into the room set aside especially for traveling guests. It was a small room, with space enough only for a bed designed to cushion one person, and a little table at its side with a pitcher laid atop it, and a book of prayers. She made up the bed there, spreading over a hay-stuffed mattress clean white sheets sewn of cotton, and the man stood in the doorframe of the room and watched her work in the light given by the little window hanging beside the bed.

She cast him a furtive glance over her shoulder, unnerved by his intense interest in her progression. Her fingers anxiously smoothed over the sheets, working away the wrinkles cast in it, and her mind raced as she wondered at the man's motive. She decided he must be making sure she performed her task correctly, or that he was eager for a nap after a long day's travel, but his eyes on her back were cold and harsh as if seeing something terrible that was invisible to herself.

With the last sheet placed cleanly over the mattress, Kagome straightened and cleared her throat. She offered a polite smile and carefully left the room. Musou, as he had called himself, followed her from the guest room and further into the main room. She chewed on the inside of her cheek and seated herself and again took up her work. She went on with it as best she could, trying to keep herself relaxed as he watched her unblinkingly like a wild cat waiting for its prey to fall into position. Her fingers went on rubbing out kinks in the herbs, and lying the fine mash to dry in the sunlight, and tying up the already dried contents into white pouches, which she moved into a woven basket so that she could later deliver her hard work to the townspeople who needed it.

She was grateful when a young man of fourteen burst into her cottage, hardly daring to announce himself as he entered. He was panting wildly from running, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He was pale and shaking like a frightened animal.

"Can I help you?" Kagome queried in slight bewilderment, temporarily drawn away from thoughts of the stranger sitting across from her as she focused on the winded man standing in her doorway.

"It's my sister," the boy huffed out in a voice quavering with anxiety and weariness, bending over and placing his hands on his knees as his breathing calmed. "She's really sick... please come help her!"

Kagome immediately set aside her work and scrambled about the room in a flurry, going to the shelves and expertly taking down rags and bottles and bars and packets of ingredients made for different purposes. She wrapped these all in a bundle, which she carefully cradled in her arms. Without excusing herself from Musou's company, she followed after the young boy to where his sister lay, sweating and heavy on the comfortable feather-stuffed bed that she shared with her husband in a small room of their cottage. Her husband was holding her hand and brushing her matted bangs away from her eyes, and Kagome went to work on helping ease her pain, and waiting on her until the fever broke.

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IT WAS VERY late when the woman's fever had finally begun to fade, and even later when Kagome decided it was safe for her to be left on her own. She went from the cottage and told the woman's worried husband, and the young brother whose sleepy eyes blinked rapidly to stay awake, to come immediately to her should the sister's condition worsen.

As she stepped on the path home, Musou startled her by greeting her abruptly from the shadowy porch.

She gave him a suspicious look as she recovered from her surprise. "I'm sorry about supper, let me get cleaned up and I'll have you something to eat..." she said as he fell in with a regal walk beside her gentle, tired shuffling.

"No need for apology," he told her placidly. The pair's walk back to Kagome's cottage was taken in silence, surrounded only by the soft whispering of wind and any autumnal bugs who were late in going to hiding, and she was too tired to be uneased by Musou's steady stare as she washed her arms and hands and prepared a light broth for them to eat. She ladled out a large portion into a porcelain bowl for him, and cut him a thick slice of bread, and then prepared a meal of the same for herself. She gave a prayer of thanks customary to one of her station, and they ate what they had in silence. She worked to keep her eyes from closing at the dinner table, the feeling of her fever creeping up back to her after a day of being kept at bay, like a searching, menacing shadow. Musou's eyes went on watching her, even as she took up the dishes and washed them, and as she left for the bedroom she normally shared with her younger brother while he was home.

She sat down heavily on her bed, which sunk slightly underneath her weight. There was a small window carved near the head of her bed, and she looked out of it with a weary, dazed expression, and with a distant sort of wonder realized how much had gone on during her day, and faintly realizing that she still needed to talk with Sachet. She smiled wearily.

Kagome undressed slowly and crawled like a worn hunting cat into the large bed she had shared with her younger brother since he had been old enough to leave his cradle, and she wove herself comfortably beneath the warm handmade quilts. She fell asleep near before her eyelids closed over her tired plum-gray eyes, and she found herself in a contented, dreamless sleep that wrapped around her like the first breeze of spring.

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"LADY KAGOME! LADY!"

"Yes, Arow?" Kagome replied tonelessly, ignoring the dutiful tone of the little girl's voice as she came climbing up the porch. Kagome loved the village children, but felt she could barely have patience for them today. She had hardly had any sleep the previous night, and earlier in the morning she had been awoken very soon to help birth an early baby. The child was fine -- he had been a bit small, but he was a pleasant and healthy baby boy.

"That Musou guy is leaving and he wants you to see him off," Arow said, picking at her dress and puffing out her lips in a pout.

"Don't call him 'that Musou guy', Arow," Kagome said with a grimace, inwardly berating herself for passing on her bad manners to other people's children. "You should be calling him Lord Musou. He is of very high social standing." Arow gave her a blank look. "Alright, I'll accept 'that creepy Musou guy' if it's only us around," Kagome corrected. Arow gave a half grin and stuck her plump tongue between her teeth smugly.

"Well, he's waiting for you at the town entrance."

Kagome sighed. "I'm coming, I'm coming." She put down a plate of bread she had been leisurely working on eating, and placidly followed the little girl to the mouth of the town, where the dirt road split out into three branches. At the curve of one road stood Musou, his pack hanging loosely at his side. He had that same dangerous look in his eye that uneased her so badly, and had been uneasing her since he had come to the village. Even the townspeople gathered behind her rather than jovially sent him off, as they normally did with more pleasant guests. There was simply something unappealing about the man who stood before them.

"Ah, Lady Kagome," he said, smiling pleasantly, the corners of his mouth somehow making his smile look disgusted as his eyes swept briefly over the crowd of people behind the young priestess. Arow latched onto Kagome's tunic, pressing herself against the woman's side and glaring at Musou. Whomever her role model disliked, she also disliked.

"Master Musou," Kagome pursued listlessly as her hand found Arow's head, her fingers idly stroking the baby-soft hair. "I bid you well on your journey."

"Lady Kagome," he continued, ignoring her well wishes and farewell. "I have a humble request, if I might make it."

"Oh, really?" Kagome asked dryly. "And what might that request be, Lord?" It was then that Kagome began to notice how tense the villagers had become throughout not only Musou's lingering but also during the electric conversation. She had never been fruitful in masking her frustration behind polite words.

"I request that you accompany me on my journey. My domain is shy of the holy, and--"

"Absolutely not," Kagome spat, disgusted, her hand pausing against Arow's head. "Not only is it highly inappropriate for a woman -- especially of my station -- to travel alone with a man without chaperone, but I have quite duty enough to perform here for these people I tend. My duty lies here and my destination only within these walls, and I shall never subjugate myself nor submit myself to the likes of you."

Kagome was not sure if she was more upset that he wished to risk her integrity, or that he would even consider she would come with him.

"Why, you mouthy devil," Musou replied, now sounding rather venomous at being thwarted. "What is the reason of demeaning me in front of your own people? Is this the kind of example you set?"

"I set only the example that _my people_ do what is healthiest for them. How is my leaving with some man -- on only his word -- healthy to a village who still needs me? Why would I risk the reputation of this town by traveling alone with a man who none of us know? Now, go!" Kagome crowed, heart pounding with fury.

"You cheeky priestess! For this humiliation, I will lay a curse on you!" Musou cried. Kagome was slightly taken aback by his threat, but she never lost her footing. She was confused by his conviction, but not frightened by it. Musou continued, "I place you under enchanted sleep, in the remains of a castle in a far away valley... guarded by magic and wisps and fairies, you shall stay in sleep until some poor hero foolish enough to find you kisses you once upon the lips; and by this seal you are to remain bound to him by two commands of subjugation until you learn your proper place as a subordinate, humble priestess! And for each year you sleep, a rose will grow up around you, until you are bound entirely. If the day you are bound comes before the day you are rescued, you will lie forever in an undreaming sleep, and you will not even be permitted the courtesy of death."

Kagome took a step back, her expression uneasy, and she pushed Arow behind her, where the little girl grasped the back of her tunic until her mother pulled her away. The villagers behind her gasped and clung to each other, and some rushed back to their homes or shooed children away from the place while still others called for warriors.

"I am not afraid of you," Kagome yet called as she recovered from her displeasure. "And I will never, ever be a subordinate, humble thing to someone who thinks so highly of himself as you."

A glow of light purple in color erupted from Musou's hands, and then Kagome's world funneled into darkness and silence.


	2. Chapter 02: What He Does for Love!

**SLEEPING STRANGER**

**Chapter 02: What He Does For Love!**

INUYASHA SNORTED IN mild annoyance as he sheathed his sword at his hip. Putting on a face of marked disgust, he carefully picked his way over the two fresh corpses of the sentries who had been guarding the entryway to the castle proper. Upon entering the open gate, he gave a quick glance to the silent forest that lay across from the rickety, wooden-planked bridge that allowed passageway over the burbling moat. Exhaling, he went over the threshold and into a courtyard. Its garden was fanned out around a chipped stone pathway becoming hidden beneath run away vines and plant growth, and in its center was a marble fountain spouting foaming white water. Enchantment kept the water running, but nothing was done for the leaking crack taken out of its side through age and wear. The garden was overrun with roots and vines and the reaching fingers of climbing plants that encased the dusty statues of all design that were cluttered about the courtyard, and the stone walls of the castle were crumbling with age.

He rolled his shoulders and went on past the fountain, chopping at any thorny vines that barred his way to the door as his perked dog ears swivelled for the trace of any suspicious sounds.

It was early winter, but since he had entered the territory surrounding the castle, and thus included in the enchantment of whatever person had cast it in the magic, the weather turned to what could be expected in the middle of Autumn. The leaves where shedding from trees in brown and orange hues, and the plants were closing up. But instead of the cricking Autumn bugs and chirruping birds preparing to leave for warmer winter roosts, there was nothing but silence. Nothing that was not enchanted dare not live so near the unnatural place. Around the edges of the castle, outside the courtyard and in the land surrounding the moat, he had caught sight of several beasts. There had been several deer, and a flock of birds, and an owl with keen yellow eyes, but that had been all.

Even if the warmer weather was a welcomed break from the cold winter brewing in the unenchanted world, Inuyasha disliked being anywhere near someplace so bewitched. It made his head buzz. He scowled as he hacked away at hip-length weeds and wildflowers with his sword, occasionally looking up at the many spires and towers that adorned the castle, and the many paneless or half-paned windows littered with rock, where inside could be seen the shadows of the things of old unused rooms: bed posts and dressers and screens and the edges of wardrobes.

He was agitated, not only from the magic woven into the cracks of the architecture, but also that he was nearing his destination. It had taken him nearly two weeks to come upon this place after he had left his home. He had travelled greatly away from his comfortable home, conquering bloodlusty demons and thieving humans alike, weathering whatever the wintry sky dropped down on him, camping in forests and bargaining for good prices at inns, all to come to this castle, miles and miles from his home. It might have taken him less time, had he known the way, but it was a journey not made out of comfort.

It was all for a priestess who had caught his fancy.

She wasn't a priestess, or even a woman, who was plain at all or like anyone else he had ever met, or Inuyasha would not have come for her. To be inspired away from home, to devote such time to another person, required that his priestess be indeed special. His priestess was the care-taker of the village in which he resided. She was very kind and very devoted, with a touch of warm humor and a heart brimmed with compassion. She did not talk much, but what she did say was worth waiting for, as it was filled with insight. He did not know why it was she who had caught his fancy, but she had, and so Inuyasha had braved everything only to come rescue her from an evil lord's curse.

He allowed out a mournful sigh as he neared the door and hoped that the priestess would not be cross with him for either arriving late, or kissing her without her permission (he did not want to kiss her, he told himself, but he had to -- in order to save her life), or allowing the curse to happen to her at all. All of this worried him intensely, but at the moment he was concentrated on the curse itself. If only he had been there, to protect her, she would not have been cursed. He should have been by her side the entire morning as she saw the traveling lord off. But he had not been there, and so he could not defend her, and she had been cursed for it.

He scowled and finally entered the castle. For a moment he stood in the shaft of warm light coming in through the doorway, slicing the soft shadows of the murkily lit greathall. The stone was rough and cool beneath his feet, not at all warmed by the sun. Several steps away from him was a red carpet spread across the stones, and at each edge lay either a doorway or a staircase. He went further in, his feet silent against the plush red carpet as he stepped onto it, and he let out a breath.

He first went about the bottom floor, looking for his priestess. He came to a kitchen with pots and pans left in disuse, an empty wash basin, and a counter with a rack for herbs hanging over it. He peeked into each store to find its shelves empty. He left and tried another room, and found a great room with a piano whose keys were yellowed and faded, and several old couches and tables with tears and breaks. Everything was coated in a dust that glowed in the sunlight coming in from the broken windows.

He left that room and took the staircase closest to the kitchen, and found himself walking down the hallway. He opened each door upon which he came, and in each one was a bedroom. There was one with a bed whose canopy was rich purple, with dark rosewood furniture, and he went into other rooms with honey-golden chairs and bed posts. The paintings in them showed faces of royalty who had long gone by, all in their strange robes and unfamiliar fashions.

Inuyasha eventually came to a room not unlike the others, with a gossamer canopy pulled back revealing a dark-haired woman lying asleep in the sunlight. She was covered in a patch of roses and a thick sheen of magic, and her rosewood furniture was coated with dust and cracks. Her face was still and peaceful.

The hard look on his face softened as he relaxed and approached the woman who was laid softly in sleep. He sat down beside her on the bed as lightly as he could, so as not to upset the pristine sheets that were over her without a wrinkle of disturbed sleep.

He twisted slightly to look at her and stood nervously, and then leaned over her as his heart pumped and his breath came too quickly.

"I finally found you..." he whispered, leaning further in and ready to kiss her to break the spell. He pulled back slightly, uneasy and anxious. He licked his lips nervously and his fingers found the fringed handgrip of his sword, upon which his thumb ran over and over restlessly.

Inuyasha bent down once more and brushed the dusky locks of hair away from her cheeks. He leaned in, until he was close enough to feel her gentle breathing, and after a moment finally brushed his lips against her own hastily.

He watched without breathing as she stirred, lightly ruffling her shoulders and taking a deep, shuttering breath before slowly breaking open her eyes. Inuyasha stared, wide-eyed, down at the woman. Eyes that were normally warm, rich brown were now gray and cool, and as her thick eyelashes parted he began to notice that her nose was shaped a little differently, and that her cheeks were a little higher than normal.

"Wait a minute..." he ground out. "You're not Kikyou!" The girl he had woken up blinked in confusion for a moment.

"Of course I'm not," she eventually said to the distraught man. "Because I'm Kagome."

"Disgusting! You mean I just kissed some woman I don't even know?" Inuyasha cried, wiping his mouth with fury.

"Not my fault," Kagome answered. "Any how, I should be the upset one. I had no choice in the matter." The man ignored her, and continued with his dramatics. Kagome pulled herself up from the bed and into a comfortable sitting position as Inuyasha paraded about the room. She was momentarily surprised by the number of the stems of thornless red roses breaking around her and cascading in her lap.

"How the hell many girls are sleeping in this God forsaken place?" Inuyasha demanded after he had finished stomping around the room.

"How should I know? I'm not in charge of this place, and I've been asleep for what looks a hundred years," Kagome answered, both sarcastic and bitter. She glared at the man and wondered what had happened to etiquette and composure. The man could, at the very least, she thought, offer to escort her home.

"What kind of stupid place is this!" he snapped instead.

"A rickety old castle," Kagome told him tonelessly, rubbing at one of her eyes with a fisted hand. She still felt a little weak and tired.

With a growl, Inuyasha leapt away from where he had come up near her bedside and whirled on the window, momentarily scanning the expansive autumnal landscape before punching the last of the broken glass out of the window.

"And this is why the castle is in such disrepair," Kagome told him, noticing the poor state of the room in which she had slept. Inuyasha offered her only a growl in return, and spun out of the room to search the others for his own sleeping girl. He had not gone too far on his own, however, when Kagome felt herself being pulled along by some acutely painful, unseen force in the direction in which he had gone, as if a leash were wrapped around her.

"No..." she whispered, eyes wide in despair. "I don't want to follow _him_ everywhere! _Curse_ Musou for this!" she swore as she unwillingly follow the dog-eared man.

Her bare feet slapped against the cold floor and she felt dizzy, her muscles hardly willing and tired. She was still awakening from a hundred year sleep, and all she could think on was how much her dislike of Musou must have grown while she slumbered. Why, she asked herself, why had he been a magician? Why could he not have been a normal lord? Why had he asked _her,_ of all people, along with him? And why, oh, why, was she bound to a foul-tempered man she did not know? She thought he would easily exploit her curse -- if he discovered she was tied to a twenty-foot radius in boundary around him, he could do all manner of things and sprint away from her until she complied to do as he asked as she was dragged along by the painful and humiliating spell. Who knew what the man would do to her if he ever knew what was happening, she thought to herself.

"Where the hell are we!" Inuyasha growled before Kagome's mind could wander further. He had exited the last bedroom of the hall empty-handed and had come across her again as she pelted along after him down the corridor.

"Raimei Valley," Kagome said almost mechanically behind her panting, knowing it for the tapestries that hung in the halls and in the rooms. "One of two known sites home to magical castle ruin. Located in the deep northeast corner of the cont--"

"I get the picture! What's the other place?" Inuyasha demanded in agitation.

"Let's make a bargain," Kagome said quickly, licking her lips as her panting subsided.

"What! Why would I do that?" Inuyasha barked, coiling into a stance prepared to attack her.

"Just listen to me!" Kagome demanded, sighing and throwing her hands into the air. In annoyance, she mentally condemned all thick-headed young heroes. "I've apparently been asleep around a hundred years," Kagome started while tapping her chin, recalling the amount of roses that had fallen away from her. "I don't know if I have a home anymore, and I have no weapons so I cannot protect myself and go home on my own. However, I know how to get to... the other enchanted castle. If you let me stay with you, I'll be your guide and you'll be my guard."

"And how do I know you won't slit my throat in my sleep or something like that?" he asked, narrowing his eyes but relaxing into a more poised posture. Kagome's eyes widened in poorly suppressed shock. She had not even considered murder as a way out of her curse.

"I'm a priestess," she growled while she planted her fisted hands against her hips. "It goes against my nature and my oaths to murder anyone heartlessly."

"Well, you're only an apprentice," Inuyasha replied as he pointed to the gray sash looped around her waist. Kagome blinked down at it. Official clergymen wore two sashes around their stomachs: a gray to prove they had studied under someone of more experienced learning, and a black to symbolize their absolute position. She had not received her black sash yet.

"I was going to be a full priestess, up until I was cursed. It still goes against my nature and my oaths to murder," Kagome insisted with a forlorn sigh. "Anyway," she said in a mockingly flirtatious tone. "You saved my life. I feel indebted to show you the way to your lovely woman, you directionally challenged hero, you."

"What the..."

"Just accept, curse you! Do you honestly think you'd be done in by someone like me? An apprentice? Without any weapons? Who absolutely needs a bodyguard to get home without such weapons?" she said, putting aside her own pride to stroke his ego.

"Fine," Inuyasha grumbled. "We'll leave tomorrow."

"Agreed. Do you have a name?" Kagome asked, deciding it best to stick on the friendliest terms as possible. It would not do to have him on her bad side, with the ruthless amount of following she was destined to do.

"Of course I have a name, I'm not some simpleton vagrant," he snorted.

"I never said you were! I'm just asking for your name!" Kagome said, shaking her head in disbelief at her new companion's hostility and defensiveness.

"It's Inuyasha," the man replied gruffly with a sneer. Kagome nodded. She relaxed slightly, now equipped with an excuse to haunt this man without letting on of the binding secret of her curse.

"Nice to meet you, Inuyasha. As I told you, I'm Kagome," she continued, feeling much more secure. "Hey, who are we looking for, anyway? What kind of curse is she under? Who cursed her?"

"None of your damn business," Inuyasha replied firmly, leaving her standing in the hallway to enter another room.

"Hang on a minute! I'm starving!" Kagome called after him. Inuyasha ignored her and slammed the door before she could follow him inside. Kagome raised her voice, "I haven't eaten in around, oh, a hundred years! And I didn't even finish breakfast that morning! Don't you have anything to eat?"

"Shut the hell up and go look in the kitchens," Inuyasha responded from behind his door. Kagome listened to the bed creak before she continued.

"Oh, yes, I'm sure I'll find some real good food there. Possibly my favorite dishes! I'm sure someone has prepared me a fine feast with all the delicate meats of the world! Bowls of ripe fruit, hot bread with honey, eggs of all designs... Maybe someone even left me some CAKE for dessert! I'm not mildew, you creep, I need real food!" Kagome wailed.

"Damn you!" Inuyasha yelled as he slammed open the door with nearly enough force to knock it from its rusted hinges. He glared at her and took off down the hall in direction of the stairs.

"Wait for me!" Kagome yelled, pelting after him.

"Wait here!" Inuyasha groaned as the pair exited the breaking castle and came into the overgrown courtyard.

"And what, be left prey to whatever lives in there?"

Inuyasha turned and stared at her in unconcealed disbelief. "You've been in there for -- what were you complaining about? A hundred years? And nothing's eaten you yet," he replied ironically.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just go do your manly hunting thing," Kagome ordered with a wave of her hands. She paused as he stared back at her in humored skepticism. Kagome shrunk backwards, wondering if she had indeed forgotten her own etiquette and self-control in the presence of this man.

"Right..."

"Unless you want me to do it?" she snapped, feeling her cheeks flush.

"No," he replied while rolling his eyes. "Just _stay_ here." He leapt off as fast as he could go, and was soon out of her sight.

Kagome watched him go, muscles tense as she waited to be pulled along by the spell. Eventually, when the air was still and quiet with the Autumn evening again, she relaxed. "Alright! I broke the spell!" she said triumphantly. Carefully, she took a giant pace to the right... and was directly pushed back to where she had been standing, as if she had run into a wall she could not see. "Oh, convenient," she moaned as she sat down heavily between the weeds and wildflowers and disappeared from sight as the growth waved overhead. "Just real great," she mumbled, and then she pondered on how much control Inuyasha had over her.

Well, she thought with a sigh, at least he could not make her 'shut up'.

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THE FOLLOWING MORNING found Kagome rubbing her bleary eyes while mustering up the energy to send a glare at Inuyasha. "What's the idea of trying to run off on me, huh?" she asked grumpily. She had been awoken by the almost electric pull of her binding spell, and it hadn't pleased her too greatly nor put her in a particularly good mood to be pulled from her dreams in such a manner.

"I wasn't _trying_ to run off, although you're not a great reason to wait around all day," Inuyasha insisted, mirroring her glare with more viciousness than her own had had before he snapped his gaze towards the looming doorway, early morning sunlight filtering in softly.

"Right," Kagome replied with a yawn, stretching out her arms and back. The pair began walking towards the door again.

"You were in a pretty deep sleep. You must be one hell of a paranoid wench to wake up just because you thought I was running off -- and I wasn't, by the way."

"Yeah, yeah," Kagome grumbled. "So what were you doing?"

"None of your business," he snapped. "Since you're awake, let's get out of here."

Kagome rubbed at her eyes again as she padded after him. "Fine. Today we're traveling southeast through the forest," she told him, pointing across the courtyard as they stepped out of the castle into the tall weeds. "Can't you cut down this grass? It's scratching my elbows. We're going to a town called Toratooth, at least it was called that last time I was awake, since it's quicker than going through Longbrush."

"I don't care where we're going or why," Inuyasha responded as he pulled out his sword, chopping at the thick weeds. "Let's just keep going."

Kagome, who was still in a terrible mood but much too tired to act upon it, let her fingers habitually curl into the back of Inuyasha's tunic as they left the courtyard behind.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"You'll leave me behind," Kagome told him. "It's not like I'm hurting you."

"You know, you have some severe separation anxiety issues."

"Hey! If I get lost in the forest or left behind, I have no way to defend myself!" she said, prying her fingers away from his shirt and clutching her hand in a fist at her side. Inuyasha gave her a dirty look over his shoulder as they continued onward.

"How long will it take to get to the village?" Inuyasha asked no more than five minutes after leaving the courtyard behind.

"We'll probably arrive sometime during the evening tomorrow," Kagome answered, following him up onto the rickety bridge. It swung gently beneath the pair's weight as they progressed further along.

"Oh, you're afraid of being left behind but you have no problem walking on this bridge?" he asked.

"What's so scary about this bridge? It got you over here, didn't it? Besides, you're walking ahead of me. If something happens you'll warn me."

"Maybe."

"I'm your travel guide. If you don't have me, you'll get lost," Kagome threatened.

"I can find my own way," Inuyasha scowled. "I'm doing you a favor."

"Are you kidding? I'm doing _you_ a favor," Kagome argued.

"If you think you're doing me any favor, I wonder what your definition of pain-in-the-ass is, woman."

"That was so witty I might just have to wit my pants," Kagome said. She glowered at Inuyasha's back and sneered at the dog ears perked atop his head.

"Quit being a moron," Inuyasha ordered in a growl.

"At least I _can_ quit being a moron."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what it means!" Kagome yelled back. She felt her insults weren't as good as they once had been, nor did they carry their usual weight, and she thought maybe her one hundred year sleep had trifled with her brain... or maybe it was the company.

"You're such a bitch!"

"You're such a bully!" she said with heartfelt conviction. "You're going to leave without me!" Kagome yelped as Inuyasha sped up suddenly. Her fingers hooked into the back of his shirt once more and he sighed heavily in front of her, slowing slightly.

"I am _not_ going to fucking leave you behind, you clingy pansy-pants!"

"I don't want to die. Do you want to get left somewhere unfamiliar? I sure don't! Anyway, who knows how much monsters have changed since I was last awake? How can I defend myself from that?"

"I'm sure you could talk them to death, you noisy woman, or cling them to death."

"Thick-headed bully!" Kagome retorted, her fingers tightening on his tunic as he tried to speed up again.

"You're driving me crazy!"

"I'm glad! Maybe you'll be better company when you're nuttier!"

"You know what!" Inuyasha snapped from in front of her, stopping abruptly as they near the end of the bridge. Kagome collided with him.

"What?"

"How long does it take to get where ever it is we're going to? The enchanted place?"

"A long time," Kagome said through clenched teeth as she bitterly ran her fingers through her hair. "A really, really, really long time, and the more you antagonize me, the longer."

"Like how long a-long-time?" Inuyasha continued, and he began walking again.

"Like three months on foot a long time, now shut up for crying out loud!" Kagome crowed, ignoring the birds whose peaceful morning chirrups had turned into angered calls and fluttered feathers as they took off at her sudden volume.

"That long!" Inuyasha howled despondently. "You humans are so damn slow!"

"You demons are so darn impatient!" Kagome retorted in an equally loud voice as the bridge creaked and groaned under the new force of the footfalls of the angry pair.

"I'm a HALF-demon!" Inuyasha argued, as if that would prove that he was, somehow, not impatient. If it had been a later hour in the day, and if maybe he had slept better, and if his guilt did not plague him so much, he would never admit to being half-demon -- if Kagome thought he was full demon, then he would be considered more powerful by her. But he had said it, as his desire to win the argument was more powerful than his foresight.

"I don't care _what_ you are! You're still an annoying bully!" Kagome rumbled. They stepped off the last shaky plank of rotting wood and entered the awaiting forest.

Inuyasha did not know what he was expecting in response to his own remark, but it was certainly not the answer with which she provided him, and for that he did not have a comeback handy.

So he lost the argument anyway.


	3. Chapter 03: Late Farewells

**SLEEPING STRANGER**

**Chapter 03: Late Farewells**

"TORATOOTH, TORATOOTH!" KAGOME cried out in jubilation, clapping her hands together as the pair approached a tight ribbon of road leading into the small village. "I can sleep in a bed tonight!"

"Where is the inn?"

"Inuyasha, do you honestly think I know?" she asked as she dazedly went about examining the town as they walked by bustling shops and finely dressed men and women. People were being shooed from booths as shop owners went to closing up and locking their doors for the night, and talk went around of the fine new shipments of silk dresses and carved ivory that had arrived only just that morning.

"What the hell are you staring at?"

"Everyone has shoes!" Kagome said in excitement. "I want shoes!" Most people had not been able to afford shoes -- much less the colorfully patterned silk clothing that many of the people were wearing -- while she had been last awake. Toratooth seemed bigger than she remembered, and much more filled with people, all of whom seemed active and open in trade and expression, and in the setting sun -- blotted to a muted yellow-gray hue for the thick storm clouds gathering -- their faces glowed with merriment.

"Well, go get yourself a pair."

"I don't have any money," Kagome said, deflating slightly. "Oh, well. My feet are so calloused I can't feel a thing anyhow."

"Wait, you don't have any money?"

"What do you think, moron? Do you think I was able to put together a travel pack before I was cursed?"

"How the hell are we going to pay for rooms at the inn?"

"No! I don't want to sleep in the forest tonight! It's going to rain!" Kagome moaned out.

"Excuse me, Lady Priestess?" Kagome paused from her ranting and looked over her shoulder. She blinked at the elderly man awaiting her audience. She gave him a brief smile and turned to face him.

"What can I help you with, sir?" she asked pleasantly as she shoved Inuyasha behind her.

"We don't have many clergymen anymore, and tragedy has recently come to pass over our village."

"Tragedy?" Kagome questioned, putting on a puzzled look.

"Please, our town has no more holy," the old man pleaded, bringing his hands from where they had been folded behind his bent back and taking Kagome's in desperation.

"None?" Kagome asked, more surprised than ever. Most towns had a church or a temple, and at them lived several clergymen, and at least one priest or priestess. Even if some towns had few holy to spare, there was always someone, including several minor holy-workers who were learned in healing and other practical jobs of the priesthood, even if they had no innate talent for it.

"None," the old man replied. "Because of this, our recent dead have not received a proper rite... And just over the past fortnight, many were maimed unjustly by a restless demon of the wood: with all due respect, Lady Priestess, can you send their souls away so they might go on without ill will?"

"Of course," Kagome answered, eyes still widened in shock. "I'd be honored to help in anyway I can."

"Very well. Would tomorrow morning suffice? We can offer you shelter at our temple for the night..."

"We appreciate your hospitality," Kagome said, nodding her head in agreement.

"We?" the man repeated.

"Yes. My, er, _guard..."_ she said, pointing behind her, deciding not to evoke her comrade's wrath by calling him her 'charge' or something which put him in a similarly lesser position than herself. She was grateful as it was that Inuyasha had the decency to remain quiet while she was asked for help.

"Pardon, Lady, but there is no one behind you," the man said. Kagome spun around and exhaled in annoyance.

"Inuyasha..." she growled. "Where did you go...?" As if in answer to her question, her binding spell tugged at her relentlessly. "Sir, excuse me while I find my guard. Your shrine pray be where?"

"Town center. I suppose I shall greet you there?"

"Momentarily, I'll join you there. Thank you!" she called as she unwittingly followed in Inuyasha's footsteps. "Now why did Inuyasha leave town?" she asked with a scowl, wondering on his disposition to run off without her. "Inuyasha?" she called out as she entered the forest. "Inuyasha! Where are you?"

She received no answer for her query, simply the rustling of leaves in the restless humid wind.

"Inuyasha, get over here now!"

A moment more of silence went by.

"Please?" she begged finally.

Inuyasha was beginning to increase his speed, which forced Kagome to take off at a decent run after him while she inwardly hoped he would go no faster. She was fairly fast, but if he decided to run with as much strength as he possessed, she might end up hurting herself in attempt to keep pace with him -- such an instance as what had nearly happened earlier that day. They had been wandering through the forest, Kagome carefully picking around stones and other things that would slice at her feet while Inuyasha went ahead and cleaved branches from their trees with his sword for entertainment. Without a word, he had perked his head up, listening to something, and had sprinted away -- forcing Kagome to follow at a pace several times quicker than was her body's norm. She had arrived in a clearing just as a demon fell to the ground, lifeless, and she had panted so hard she was dizzy. Inuyasha had smirked and then dragged her back towards the path.

Her reminiscing was pushed aside when Kagome heard thunder boom distantly. She groaned.

There were two things that frightened her, and those two things were thunder and being in an unfamiliar place alone, and currently she was in a position to face both.

"Inuyasha!" she pleaded out. "I have a place for us to stay now! With food! Beds! No forest! Please come on!" she called. The spell slackened around her, and she exhaled gladly. She wryly thought to herself that food had probably nagged his attention.

For several lengthy moments, however, nothing seemed to happen. The air was still and electric and full of humidity, and the sun was setting. It was becoming dark, and she was alone in a forest home to a rampaging monster that had been terrorizing a town for a fortnight. The rain was beginning to fall and the thunder sounded closer.

Kagome took a step forward and swallowed thickly when she heard a rustle in the darkening brush behind her. Carefully, eyebrows drawn in worry, she twisted her body to look at what lay behind her, wishing she had a weapon at all. When she saw nothing had come from the brush, she turned around again and took one more careful step forward.

"I smelled something," Inuyasha notified coarsely from behind where she stood. Kagome let out a sharp yell, heart pumping as she twirled around.

"Don't do that, you jerk! You startled me!" she yelled, pointing a finger out at him accusingly as her other hand rested on her pounding heart. Inuyasha smirked at her harried expression. "What did you smell?" Kagome continued as she calmed. She glared and crossed her arms over her chest as she attempted to regain her lost dignity.

"Gone now, rain's washing out the scent. Damn rain," he cursed, shaking his fist at the ominous sky as a thick rain pelted down.

"Let's go back to the village now," Kagome suggested, slightly uneasy as she looked around at the blackening world. "The villagers are allowing us to stay at the temple tonight..."

Inuyasha nodded once and began to walk in the direction from which they had come. Kagome trotted after him and latched on to the back of his shirt with some disdain.

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"WHAT DO YOU mean, 'I'm fat'?" Kagome demanded crossly as she threw a fruit peel at Inuyasha, who sat across from her in the temple's small dining hall.

"Exactly what I said," Inuyasha replied with a smirk as Kagome wiped fruit juice from her fingers on a cloth napkin. "And you'll only get worse by eating so damn much."

"You have some nerve!" Kagome glowered, pinching her stomach under the table. "I am most certainly not fat."

"Definitely not the prettiest face around, either... so plain."

"On the contrary," the temple-keeper spoke up as Kagome rose from her seat with her fist balled up. His eyes darted nervously between the priestess and her guardian. "The Lady Priestess is quite lovely." Kagome smiled and nodded once, resuming her seat.

"See, our host here is only a child and knows good taste." Inuyasha watched with a raised eyebrow as the temple-keeper deflated somewhat while Kagome smirked intently.

"Does the stupid peasant have a romantic fancy for Lady Priestess?" Inuyasha teased.

"O-o-of course not!" their host said rapidly, eyes widening.

"You know groundskeepers and priests are as likely to marry as groundskeepers and royalty, don't you?"

"Inuyasha! Where do you get the nerve to say such tasteless things!" Kagome barked.

"No harm in speaking the truth."

"I think you're simply jealous," Kagome remarked as she crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. Inuyasha sprang into a tense, upright posture and took on an offended expression as their host looked uneasily back and forth between the two.

"What the hell would I be jealous for?"

"Maybe that some men are capable of conversing with lovely ladies without hoarding every unattractive vice to himself."

"Ouch, you wound me deep," Inuyasha said with a laugh, relaxing back into his chair.

"Or perhaps that our host is currently in my better judgment than you are."

"And why would I care about that?" Inuyasha asked honestly. "I've known you for less than a week. You can't have a proper opinion of me yet, and I certainly don't have one for you."

"You seem to think that opinions can be formed over the course of this meal in the case of this boy here. Tell me, then, why would it take you longer to form an opinion of me than it would he? Are you more dim-witted?"

"I most certainly am not," Inuyasha growled.

"I hate to interrupt your-- er, conversation-- but it is getting late, so perhaps, if you're through dining, I might show you your rooms..."

"Of course, ahh-?"

"Houjou," the boy supplied. "This way."

"Thank you, Houjou," Kagome finished as she stood from the table. Inuyasha yawned and stole an apple from the fruit basket in the center of the table before following after the pair, quietly picking up another argument with Kagome as they were led up a thin wood staircase to a humbly furnished hallway with five doors separated by stone walls. Sconces to the side of each door held flickering flames, lighting the scratched oak floors. Houjou pointed out the two doors at the furthest end of the hall, indicating that they were concealing the rooms prepared to lodge the couple. Kagome joyfully looked on at the awaiting bedrooms, where she would take the normal, comfortable sleep that she craved after two restless nights in the forest.

"Houjou?" Kagome questioned as the boy began to turn away.

"Yes, Lady Priestess?"

"Is there a bath house or such here?" she asked, forgetting that she would hardly be able to go unless she intended to take Inuyasha along with her.

"No, but we have a hotspring just outside of town. I wouldn't suggest it tonight, for the rain and demons."

"Of course. Thanks again, Houjou."

"Always welcome," Houjou answered and politely bowed himself from their presence.

"Inuyasha--" Kagome pursued hastily as Inuyasha reached for the brass doorhandle of the furthest door as they padded down the hallway together.

"What?" he barked. Kagome paused uneasily, without anything of import to say, and only dreading when the torches were all put out and she would be left alone to brave her fear of the thunder. She sorely wished she was at home, crawling into the large bed she shared with her brother instead of retreating into solitude in an unfamiliar place.

"Uhh..." Kagome continued nervously as she licked her lips.

"Don't tell me you're _scared,"_ Inuyasha mocked as he rolled his eyes. His hand drew away from the doorhandle and he leaned against the unpolished wood of the entryway, arms crossed over his chest.

"Scared of what!" Kagome defended herself hastily, planting her hands on her hips.

"Spiders? Enclosed areas? Thunder? Being alone? The dark? Bedposts? Windows? Heights? Going without my presence for a night?" Inuyasha queried, ticking off each of the items with a nod of his head.

"Huh! None of the above!" Kagome declared. "Good night!" Shaking her fist in the air, she stomped into her bedroom and slammed the heavy door behind her while muttering about the absurdity of fearing bedposts. Where she had left him in the hall, Inuyasha smirked and turned for his own room as he congratulated himself on how good he had become at quelling a girl's fear.

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"GOOD MORNING, SUNSHINE," Inuyasha greeted Kagome with mock cheer as she crawled out of her room nearly simultaneously with his entry into the kitchen.

"You're a stupid, inconsiderate jerk and you smell bad," Kagome mumbled in morning salutation as she rubbed her eyes sleepily and made a displeased grunt at the back of her throat.

"How the hell do you know how I smell? And what'd I do now, anyway?" Inuyasha growled. "I haven't even started picking on you yet."

"Then save this notification for future use. When you're about to make a go on the color of my hair, or the symmetry of my face, or whatever you have planned, just remember you're an inconsiderate jerk who smells bad."

"You forgot the stupid part," Inuyasha grumbled as he slumped down at the table. Kagome melted into the chair across from him and put her head on the table.

"Good, you're remembering it already," she drawled. "Why do you have to wake me up so early, anyhow?" she moaned.

"You woke up on your own!" Inuyasha yelled. "Unless you're suggesting that every time I get out of bed, you wake up! Nutcase!"

"That's just crazy!" Kagome cried out in a rush. "You just make a lot of noise going down the stairs, and I'm a light sleeper. Unfortunately."

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at her as she sighed and evened out her breathing. Within moments, she was asleep again and left Inuyasha to ponder the validity of her claim. If she was such a light sleeper, he asked himself, why had she not woken up when he was poking her several nights ago? And the previous night, she had slept through the visit he had paid her to make sure she had gone to sleep despite whatever it was that had spooked her. Something was going on, he told himself, and he was going to find out.

He pulled a porcelain plate noisily out of a stack left on the table and began piling fruit slices and bread onto it. Despite the noise he made, and despite the warm glow of light hazily drawing in from the stained glass window and brightening over her, Kagome continued to slumber peacefully.

Inuyasha looked down at his breakfast. He rolled up a ball of bread, until it was hard and compact, and he lobbed it lightly at Kagome. It hit her near her ear before rolling onto the floor, and from it Kagome gave no inclination that she even had the hint that she was being attacked by breakfast food. Inuyasha then procured an apple from the fruit basket and tossed it at Kagome's head. It hit against her hairline and bounced back onto the table. Kagome's head snapped up and she rubbed the apple's mark tenderly.

"You jerk! That hurt!" she said angrily. "What was that even for?"

"For grouching at me the moment you woke up," he told her nonchalantly. "Don't make me throw another," he added as he messily pushed an entire slice of bread into his mouth. Kagome glared and took her own slice of bread, chewing with a pout on her face.

"Let's go," Inuyasha ordered after he had finished eating.

"I can't. I promised to perform a funeral service for these people, Inuyasha. I need to do this," she told him with as much sobriety as she could muster. She gave him her sincerest look.

"Fine. We leave directly after, then," he replied.

"Good," Kagome said as she relaxed. "I would not have it any other way," she told him as Houjou materialized in a side doorway, framed by golden morning light.

"Whenever you are ready, Lady Priestess."

"I'm ready," Kagome informed him as she ran her fingers through the tangles in her hair. "Come on, Inuyasha, let's go."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and followed Kagome out of the dining hall through the sidedoor, stepping into the chilly, wet morning. They were led to the edge of the village, which folded into fields -- some fallow, and some recently tilled and with broken earth after the year's crops had finished their growing. Across from the fields was a burial yard, littered with freshly raised mounds. A small company of people were beginning to gather and Kagome took her place before them while Inuyasha settled himself behind her.

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AS KAGOME AND Inuyasha found their way to the road through the woods leading away from Toratooth, so did they find themselves in silence. Kagome herself was not in any sort of cheerful spirit, but instead forlorn after the funeral that she had helped to pass.

Many children had been lost during the demon's rampaging. The town's small rift of warriors had taken great losses in their newest recruits. Three young mothers, five grandfathers, two grandmothers, and one father had been murdered.

In spite of that, Kagome thought with a bittersweet heart, the townspeople had still requested that she pray for the monster, which had been slain by a passing traveler sometime in the night and left near the fallow field. Kagome had been touched by their sincerity, that they were asking not only so that it would keep from coming back to haunt their village as a spirit, but also so that it might find peace. It was rare to find an entire town whose residents looked so unbiasedly at all life, even that which took others.

After the funeral had finished, Kagome had found herself absorbed in a slew of unhappy thoughts of her own -- a common occurrence after such a service, but it hit her much harder now. It seemed more personal.

How many lives and deaths had she herself missed whilst asleep?

How many children had been born, and raised, and married while she dreamlessly plunged through the years?

The young boy whom she had helped deliver the morning preluding her curse would be dead, she thought to herself in something of a cold shock. She felt as if something had been taken from her as she came to realize that she had never helped him weather his first fever. She had never heard his first words, nor listened to him come to her and ask the meanings of things he was too afraid to ask his mother.

And his mother, and even his sons and daughters, if he had any, would be gone. She never got to see that child's mother grow old and die peacefully, and she had never -- and would never -- see his children grow up to look like him and marry others in the village who were strangers to her and have children of their own as _they_ grew old and died peacefully.

Arow would be gone. Sachet would be gone. Two little girls whom she had so warmly loved and helped raise had grown up while she slept. Those two little girls who were always surprised if Kagome said something forward, and yet they never hesitated to take her advice when she gave it because they trusted her so fully, so faithfully.

Kagome wondered if Sachet kissed Eru, if she grew up with him and if they had children. She wondered if Arow had become the priestess she had aspired to be. Bitterly she knew she would never hear Arow's little voice proclaiming her intent to become a priestess just like her when she was grown up. Kagome would never feel Arow's short fingers latch onto her tunic.

Her heart ached deeply when she accepted that her mother had also gone. Her mother, who she still remembered full of life and vitality, was cold and her spirit long fled. She had never been able to see her mother simply one final time before she had been cursed. She could not even remember the last words she had said to her mother, whether they had been indifferent or happy, and she could only hope they were expressive. Her mother would never know now if her only daughter ever married, as her maternal heart had hoped, if she had ever found a husband who could manage her, or if Kagome's children would be just as spirited.

Her younger brother had gone on and grown old before her unjustly, a boy who still had so much life ahead of him as she was laid to a hundred year sleep. She wondered if he had married and had his own children. She wondered what his face had looked like as he had come home and found the bed empty, the house empty. She wondered how much his face had changed as he had aged. She wondered how it would feel to return home and find someone with whom you had shared your whole life was suddenly gone, and you had never been given the chance to bid a final farewell.

Worse than being bound to Inuyasha, worse than that no one had come to ever save her, except by mistake, was that her curse had made her outlive everyone she had loved. She would grow up in a world not her own, and she would never know how their lives had concluded. They had all passed on without her. She never got to say goodbye to them, and she felt as if it were far too late for farewells.

Inuyasha looked over his shoulder at Kagome in near trepidation. Kagome had not been, in the entire expanse of their trip together, _silent._ She had been angry, and loud, and annoyed. When she was in a fair mood she laughed and chattered and hummed. But she had never been subdued and hurting. While her chittering had bothered him, and while it was exhausting to quarrel with her, he found this silence even more distracting. She hadn't even taken hold of his shirt.

"Hey, uh, woman?" he said, licking his lips. He hated to see any girl upset, even Kagome. It made him feel so guilty.

"What?" Kagome responded mechanically, her eyes still lost in dreaming.

"Uh... where are we headed now?"

"Rivertop," Kagome replied in the same maladroit tone.

"And?" Inuyasha pressed with a sigh.

"Rivertop, a village."

Inuyasha let out an annoyed puff of air. "Care to tell me about it?"

Kagome stopped walking and stared at the back of his head in suspicion. Inuyasha, who heard her when she stopped, turned to face her. He fidgeted a little as she passed him under her scrutiny. She wondered what his motives could be, as he had never before shown an interest in where they were going except for the distance left to travel.

"I mean-- is it likely we'll get there today?" he asked hastily.

Kagome nodded to herself slightly in confirmation. That was what she had been expecting. "Maybe, it's pretty close to Toratooth. I'm not sure I can make it the whole way, though," she said weakly.

They resumed walking again, and Kagome tapered off into her detached silence as she thought on her family. Inuyasha focused on his surroundings, as his attempt at conversation ended in failure. He observed the woods. Thick brown trees like others he had seen before. Branches bare with winter. White light cascading down from the sky in muddled puddles around the bare bushes. Sticks and rocks on the ground.

"Hey," he started again when his attention span gave up on him.

"What?"

"You _should've _gotten shoes. Your disgusting feet are muddy."

"Yeah?" Kagome snapped. "Your feet are muddy, too, but it actually improves them a bit."

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KAGOME MUMBLED TO herself in a barely audible voice, staring dully down at the dim path in front of her so that she could sidestep when stones and splinters barred her path.

"I can't see very well anymore," Kagome informed Inuyasha as she gave a catlike yawn, wincing as she stubbed her toe against a tree root. She had never realized how difficult it was to navigate at night.

"And?"

"Inuyasha, I'm really tired." She gave a sleepy sigh to accent her growing weariness.

"And?"

"Can't we please just stop now for tonight? If I collapse, you won't know where to go. I'm the guide."

"This is just a simple path, I can use it on my own."

"Don't get smart with me... it's not something you're good at."

"Look, how far can we be from this town?" he asked rhetorically, ignoring the jab. He was becoming accustomed to being insulted and not having any witty retorts. "I can hear people from here. I don't want to sleep in the mud... or in any wet trees."

"But I'm going to collapse," Kagome argued with a despairing groan. She threw her arms up into the air, faintly noticing how sore her muscles were, and that moving so much felt as if it took much more energy than was worthwhile.

"Nahh, don't say that. You've got pretty good stamina for being such a weak, clingy human. I've never met a human who could keep pace with me for an entire day."

Kagome took that as neither a compliment nor a snide remark. If not for the spell, she knew she would have stopped long ago, or at least she would have piddled along after Inuyasha at a much slower pace. However, it was due in part to her stamina that she had not fallen to the ground out of sheer weariness, and the comment had been the first nearly-kind string of words to stumble out of Inuyasha's mouth. Still, she was neither accustomed to nor built for so great amounts of cross-country trekking. Outside of a pilgrimage she had made when she took her oaths, and the occasional trips she made to neighboring villages to deliver medicines, she had never traveled regularly.

"Yeah," she finally agreed. "But it's why I'm so tired."

Inuyasha snorted.

"Carry me then?" she requested.

"Like hell I'm going to lug your sorry hide around."

"But I'm going to fall," she whined. As if to prove her point, her foot crammed into another unseen root and for it she lost her balance. She rose as quickly as she could, hoping to be walking again before Inuyasha could see, and she hastily wiped mud away from her cheek with her rough tunic sleeve. Inuyasha had caught sight of her, however, and laughed at her expense.

"Fine... I'll carry you, but only because you made me laugh," he said as he bent down. Kagome did not remark at all on his insult, but merely clambered onto his back. Inuyasha took off at a sprint, which had the cold and brittle winter air drawing through Kagome's hair and across her cheeks. She fell asleep with her face tucked against his neck.


	4. Chapter 04: River's Edge

**SLEEPING STRANGER**

**Chapter 04: River's Edge**

KAGOME CHEERFULLY BADE farewell to the elderly priest who had hosted Inuyasha and herself the previous night at the temple. The old man smiled and nodded once as Kagome enthusiastically paused in walking away and waved back at him. She had slept well, as she had been given a night of full, good rest, and she had even arose before Inuyasha, which meant that she had not yet been shocked by her curse.

"Hurry it up!" Inuyasha called from several feet ahead of her. Kagome trotted up next to him and sighed happily.

"It feels so nice today," she stated as she stretched out her arms in the sunlight. Since the time that she and Inuyasha had departed from the enchanted castle nearly a week before, the weather had been chilly and and brittle and only warm enough to keep the rain from turning to snow. That morning, however, saw a winter sun that was unnaturally warm for its season, and a sky that was pleasantly cloudless.

Inuyasha seemed quite unconcerned with the weather, merely flicking an ear back and forth as a bothered cat might do.

"This place used to be a fishing town," Kagome started to explain. "But I guess the river is gone now. The bed was empty."

Inuyasha simply grunted noncommittally.

"We should start the river again," Kagome suggested, merrily envisioning the prospect with a glad smile on her face.

"What, are you stupid or something?"

"We could name it Kagome River when it started working again. And then we can put fish in it... like those cute little pale blue kind, I really love those. Those are my favorite."

"Mine, too," Inuyasha replied dryly. Kagome smiled up at him brilliantly, impressed that he had replied to her kindly and agreeably. "... My favorite kind to eat, rather," he added and smirked. Kagome's look of gladness dissolved into one of injury.

"You're such a bully!"

"And you're a loud, obnoxious, childish bitch, and you never know when to stop talking," he grumbled. Kagome halted her walking and narrowed her eyes at his back, lips drawn in a thin line. She sighed suddenly and slowly rambled after him, her good mood dissipating entirely. She did not know if Inuyasha's abrasive behavior was an act or his true disposition, but she had no inclination of sacrificing her feelings further to find out, and so she let all conversation drop. Since she had joined her journey with Inuyasha's, she had found that she was rarely in good humor, and when she was, Inuyasha found a way to abruptly end it.

The pair stayed in a disheartened silence as they trekked into the forest.

"How long does it take to get there?" Inuyasha eventually asked as he squinted up at the bright sun hanging overhead, where it was starting its downward arc for the day.

Kagome did not answer him, and instead only glared down at the muddy earth where he had left his footprints. She had no desire to speak with Inuyasha at all, and in the silence she realized how much she hated traveling through the woods so constantly, and she felt lonely.

"Are you deaf? I asked how long until we get there," Inuyasha snapped when she said nothing. Kagome went on in silence, still providing him with no answer. "Fine," he eventually said. "I'll just find this place by myself."

Kagome had long decided he had no intention of upholding such a threat, as he had made them sporadically throughout the trip. She folded her arms over her chest and looked off in the opposite direction.

"Listen, bitch, you asked me to help you out. I'm not going to drag you around protecting your sorry hide if you're not going to tell me how long it takes to get there."

Kagome kicked a stone out of her path. It skidded along the dirt trail and stopped as it bumped into a tree root.

"Whatever, woman. You can just stay here for all I care. I'm not going to babysit some brat with an attitude problem."

Kagome's eyes widened and her mouth hung ajar as she found herself suddenly adhered to the spot at which she stood. Inwardly she simmered at her luck. Of all the ways Inuyasha could have ordered her to stay behind, or to go off on her own, or to leave him be, he had chosen the only set of words that served as an actual command that she could not disobey. So she frantically watched as Inuyasha went on walking, leaving her behind.

"Hey! Get back here!" she called. "Get your sorry carcass over here!"

Inuyasha disappeared from view at a twist in the path.

"Oh, come on, for crying out loud! Hey, I'm sorry, Inuyasha! Do you hear me? Do you? Come back!"

He did not come, so Kagome loosed a frustrated breath that sent her bangs out of her eyes. She slumped down to the ground, her legs folding on each side of her and her arms crossed over her chest.

"Hey, Inuyasha!" she called out suddenly, unfolding her arms. "You're going the wrong way!" she shouted hopefully. She was answered only by the cawing of an afternoon bird in a nearby tree. "I don't want to die here!" she yelped more to herself than to Inuyasha.

The rest of the afternoon she spent in silence, lying on her back and staring up at the winter sky as it turned orange when the sun set jaggedly into the trees. The reds and oranges and yellows dripped into faded purples, and it was at the time the world was going dim that the peace was disturbed by a distant trill that was followed by closer, abrupt footsteps in a rush. As a young man flew out of the brush, Kagome sat slowly and blinked at him.

"Lady Priestess!" he panted out. "There's a demon coming through this way, and you must make haste in getting to safety!"

"I can't," she informed him, eyes widening in fear as she remembered she held no weapon.

"This is no time to commune with nature! You must go, Lady!" he ordered. Kagome's mouth went dry. There was no way for her to flee.

"I cannot. I am bound here," Kagome explained. Another trill followed and the man bore a sudden look of worry. "Run ahead. If you see a white-haired, dog-eared man who acts like an ape, tell him that I will die if he doesn't come right away. Do that good turn for me, would you?" she begged, knowing she had no one else to protect her.

"A-aye, Lady!" the man answered in slight confusion. He pulsed ahead once more with renewed youthful vigor as Kagome blew her bangs from her eyes and slumped down to her back again.

"I am going to be one easy meal," she said as the sun went entirely.

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INUYASHA GRUMBLED AS he approached another empty clearing, a place that provided neither sight nor sound of human habitation. Bitterly he wondered where Kagome had gone. Although it pained him to rely on anyone, especially such a one as Kagome, he was, by that point, irritated with just being lost. He was also irritated that Kagome had simply went off without telling him she planned on it. He could make no guess of her current whereabouts, but his only real concern for the moment was finding the next village.

Where ever it was.

He walked back towards the trail and turned a random direction at the next fork in the road, both paths of which he had yet to travel. He exhaled in annoyance, and to occupy his stress he began picking at the grip tape around his sword handle. It fringed easily under treatment from his claws and provided him with little enjoyment.

Above him, the sun was setting. The horizon was purple and the sky dark gray, dimming the world and casting everything from the loam under his feet to the peeks of the bare trees in shadow.

A human abruptly raced through the path, panting desperately. In the setting evening light, Inuyasha could see his worn face and tight features. He stopped walking and supposed he would ask the location of the nearest village, should his pride be able to handle it.

"D--"

"You better hurry back a couple miles," the man suggested before Inuyasha could utter a word. The man wiped sweat from his head with the back of his gritty hand.

"And I'd do that because..?" Inuyasha asked, raising an eyebrow.

"There's a priestess back there about to become a demon's supper, and she mentioned only a white-haired, dog-eared man who acts like an ape. She refused to leave the spot. She's waiting for you."

Inuyasha's eyes flashed with anger and he took off at a sprint, retracing his steps at much quicker a pace than he had gone before. It had taken him nearly an entire afternoon to make his way across the wooded countryside, as he had no particular direction and continually picked wrong paths, and it was nearly maddening that it took him but fifteen minutes to find himself approaching the patch of forest where he had left Kagome much earlier in the day.

"She just had to call me an ape, the lousy woman."

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ANOTHER OF THE trills filled the chilly night sky, and it was much closer to Kagome's place. She did not even try to stop the whimper that escaped her lips in response to it.

Shortly after, a demon plunged into her sight, sheering trees from the ground with a vehement swipe of claws and effectively creating a small clearing by doing so. It sputtered up bile and showed off its fangs as it loosed another trill. From its sides hung several sets of bony arms, and its body tapered off into that of a scorpion, whose looped tail flicked acid across the opening. Sweat trailed down its sides from the flesh half, and mud was caked onto the sleek shell of its insect side. The scorpion hide was pale and dull in the moonlight, a stark contrast to the resplendently gleaming teeth it bore shamelessly from swollen gums.

Kagome swallowed the lump trying to rise in her throat as the demon's yellow-tinted eyes slowly pivoted on her. Its face lit up.

"Well, well, I knew I smelled something good in this forsaken forest. I do believe I haven't seen a-one as holy as you for years and years, Lady Priestess," it mocked with as much acid in its voice as its fangs dripped. "You'll be such a nice treat."

"H-haven't I got a say in this at all?" Kagome demanded nervously from her position on the ground.

"And why would you?" the thing chuckled menacingly. Kagome swallowed again.

"Uhh... I suppose because it might entertain you?" she tried, wishing the moonlight would dissolve and the darkness would swallow her up.

"Perhaps," it said in a humored tone. "Why, then, Lady, wouldn't I eat you?"

Though Kagome was aware that the demon was only making sport of her, and though it hurt her pride, she felt convinced that if she elongated the fatal moment for as long as possible there would be time enough left for Inuyasha to intervene. She was determined to simply keep herself alive, breathing, and well until he could relapse so far back into the wood, which he had spent half a day traversing, and she had to take into consideration that the human boy she had met previously might not have told Inuyasha at all.

She needed a miracle, she thought.

"Well--" she began, licking her dry lips. "I'm good for lots of different things. Like... well, I can read the future!" Kagome lied hastily.

"Can you, now?" the demon said, considering this. "Alright, what is my future, then?"

"Give me a moment to concentrate," Kagome responded as she closed her eyes and searched for an acceptable lie. She wondered what a human-feasting monster looked forward to in its life; she thought of power, of easy prey, of good game and she wondered which of these her attacker would most enjoy.

"Well, priestess?"

"Uhh, a very good future in store for you!" Kagome blurted. "Only shortly, you will be given an opportunity that most d-- that most would never dare dream of!"

"And what is that?"

"It will fill you with much jubilation to know," Kagome went on, "that you are indeed blessed with good fortune."

"You're trying my patience."

"Only shortly you will be given a moment during which you will have the power and the resources to take hold of an entire human village as your own, where you can rule over the inhabitants however you desire," Kagome finally predicated, hoping the demon was pleased with the broad tale she was spinning for it.

"Nice indeed," the demon said. "Too bad I haven't the patience to keep it. But... it has been quite awhile since I've had an entire village to fill my stomach..." it went on with a far away look in its eye. Kagome chewed her lip, trembling and caught between a mixture of disgust and raw fear. "What else can you do?" the demon pursued.

"I am... I uhh... I can... I can heal wounds! Yes, I am actually a very good healer. I can even heal your wounds! Any time you are in battle, and though I'm sure you'll always be victorious, I can mend any wound, erase any scar, and replace any physical losses!"

"I heal very fast and I regenerate. No good," the demon replied.

"I... I... Well, I... I don't taste very good, I promise!"

"Kagome, you great idiot!" Inuyasha called as he burst into the clearing, his sword bore before him with its blade gleaming in the moonlight like a monster's fang. The demon hissed.

"Just kill it!" Kagome yelled back.

"You tricked me, you impudent filth!" the demon cawed maliciously.

"Stop your senseless yammering and concentrate on me, ugly bastard!" Inuyasha challenged as he took a charge towards the demon. It dodged his blow and swung its tail about itself, flinging flecks of acid to and fro. Inuyasha leapt away, twisting midway through his jump and cleanly slicing one of the many arms from the monster's body. It howled and seethed as Inuyasha tumbled off to the side, and it again set its target on Kagome with its eyes glinting.

"I will have that despicably pure priestess," it said with hunger and recklessness, "if it's the last thing I do!"

"Kagome! Why the hell aren't you doing anything!"

Kagome only screamed in answer, instinctively throwing her arms up to cover her face as the monster lunged for her. Inuyasha sprung with every muscle in his body to directly block the blow from Kagome, taking a long scrape of claws across his own chest as he pulled a muscle in his leg from the awkward jump. His tunic given three waves of holes with accompanying bloody gashes on his body, Inuyasha loosed a small growl before whipping around and raking through the demon's stomach with his own claws while ignoring the sword in his right hand. He cleanly tore its belly open, effectively killing it and spraying everything in the clearing with black blood. After a moment he took a step back towards Kagome, where she sat still with her knees folded beside her.

"What the hell is the meaning of just sitting there, you dolt!" Inuyasha demanded down at her.

"You're hurt!" Kagome responded, still trembling slightly.

"It's nothing. It'll be gone by tomorrow. You've really gotta start sticking up for yourself, you useless weakling."

"You jerk! I don't have any weapons and we don't have the money to buy me one!"

"Is that the kind of thanks I get for saving your sorry ass!"

"What am I supposed to do! Leap for joy? It's your fault I'm stuck here to begin with!" Kagome crowed in return.

"How the hell is it my fault you chose to sit here on your ass and nearly get yourself killed!"

"Because you told me to stay here!"

"Like hell! Why the hell would you suddenly start doing something just because I said so! I don't think you'd risk your worthless life because you wanted to spite me! I'm not that stupid, woman!"

"Ugh! You're so thick! It never ceases to amaze me!"

"What!"

"I can't believe you haven't noticed yet!" Kagome screamed.

"Noticed what, you twit!"

"It means we've gone on like this for a week and you haven't noticed! You haven't even suspected!" Kagome called. She was tiptoeing a fine line, but she was beginning to consider that it was safer to have Inuyasha know of her curse, in which case she would not be stuck in a similar position in the future. If given the chance, she would sacrifice her pride for her life, as she was no fool. Pride could be regained but life could not.

However, another part of her, a small part of her that might have been her conscious if it had only had the decency to come around often enough, was genuinely afraid of what Inuyasha would do if he came into the knowledge that he had such power over her.

He had displayed little worth trusting.

But he had come back for her, she told herself.

He had taken a blow for her... a blow that would have easily killed her.

Had it been to protect her as his guide? He had not come back for her at all during the day, she reminded herself. The only logical reason she could rest upon was that he had indeed come back to save her, and not to save his guide.

He had taken a blow for her. He deserved her trust.

"What haven't I noticed! That you're a pinhead! Because I've noticed!"

"No, you moron! That I'm bound to you!" she said, her heart pounding painfully against her ribs.

"What the hell does that mean!"

"My curse, you dimwit! I was cursed to sleep until someone kissed me awake, and now I'm magically bound to you until I become adequately subordinate! By this enchantment, I have to follow you unless you command me not to! Do you think I normally enjoy subjugating myself to the hurtful words you design? Do you think I enjoy sitting around waiting for my death to come to me?" she asked with a cracked voice. She was staring right into Inuyasha's eyes, and with every word she spoke the more his eyes seemed to widen, the further his surprise seemed to increase. "No! It was a miracle in itself you were still close enough to get here in time! Where were you! Lost!"

"Like hell I was lost!" he denied hastily. "And why didn't you tell me all this crap sooner!"

"I didn't want to!"

"Well, thanks to your pride, you idiot, we've lost a day of travel!"

"Not to mention I nearly lost my life, not that my life's important or anything," Kagome grumbled and rolled her eyes.

"Wait a minute," Inuyasha said suddenly, his face lighting up with joy. "This means..."

Kagome put her head into her hands, ready to accept whatever repercussions she would feel for releasing such precious information.

"This means I'm the leader now," he said triumphantly. He smirked as he saw Kagome's fingers tighten in her hair. "No more piddling around town all day. No more early nights. No more late mornings. No more taking breaks, slow walking..."

"You'll drive me to death!" Kagome yelped, snapping her head up suddenly.

"And?"

Kagome's eyes widened as Inuyasha smirked.

"You can't mean that..." she whispered. "What happens when we get to your girl?"

"I guess I'll have no use for you then, will I? I don't think you'll be following me around much if you're dead."

Kagome's heart seemed to disappear in fear. "You..."

"Maybe you shouldn't trust people so easily."


	5. Chapter 05: Strange Attractions

**SLEEPING STRANGER**

**Chapter 05: Strange Attractions**

KAGOME RAN HER fingers forcefully through her tangled hair and stared out the window of the temple's dining hall. The starlight glimmered faintly through the window, partially obscured by the candlelight flickering in the glass, and the moon seemed more distant than she had known it to be. The sun was just beginning to rise, a fiery orange that lit up the ashen gray sky with licking yellow fingers. It seemed so cold.

Before her was a bowl of cooling porridge, but she had not touched it. Her spoon lay by the bowl's side, clean and gleaming, and the olive green napkin beneath it was smooth and folded with neither crease nor stain. Across from her sat Inuyasha, hunched over his own bowl of porridge with his cheek resting against his palm, but she could not find it in herself to steal a glance at him any more than what the edge of her eye was able to catch. She was disappointed and angry and frightened, and she was unsure which of these emotions upset her the most.

She had known she was gambling when she confessed to him. What she had not known was that the stakes were so high. She had not realized that Inuyasha valued human life -- _her_ human life -- so little that he thought it of small consequence whether she lived or died in the end. And still, she asked herself, why had he come back for her? Why, she questioned, had he taken a blow for her with not a breath of hesitation? She could not find an answer.

She did not know if she was angrier with herself or with Inuyasha. Like a precious gift, she had given him her trust and she had been betrayed. She was full of regret that she had told him, and she blamed herself for ignoring her instincts. But in her heart, she could not help but admit that she blamed him equally for what he had done to her and what he would do to her, and she somehow felt that the ease with which he was able to torment her, while knowing her in a state of weakness, demonstrated that his heart was no kinder than Musou's for issuing such a curse.

And she was afraid of what he would do. She was afraid because she had never been in a state of such weakness. She had been a role model for many children, and a source of comfort to their parents. She had been well-respected on many accounts and trusted on many more. She had been a savior to people, from helping to birth babies to easing illnesses to treating wounds with skill and efficiency. She might not been a princess, nor even the cousin of a princess, and she worked hard for every day she lived, but she had been highly esteemed and comfortable. And now she had nothing; there were none who knew her, and few who respected her, and no one to treat her like a valued being. She was at the mercy of someone hateful.

More than anything, she was afraid of dying. It was a fear that had never seemed to bother her much before, as she had never really thought of death. She had been afraid of thunder and of being alone in an unfamiliar place, but she could abide those fears, even when she vehemently wished to avoid them. She did not know how much her new fear would grow in her heart, if it would strengthen her or if it would destroy her. She wondered why she had never feared death before; not during those reckless times when she climbed up on roofs to throw mud clods down at the village boys, and not during the times when she bated demons by tossing sticks at them in their holes, and not when she tried eating wild fruits as she found them and they made her ill. She wondered why that fear had never struck her before; she wondered what had made it so concrete now.

The fear was already beginning to fade as the sun rose. It was still there, like a second shadow, but she also knew that if she died, she would go on to be with her mother and father and younger brother where they were now. She would go on to be with those who had left her behind, and that was some small comfort among the fear of being murdered.

"If you're gonna eat, eat now. I'm not waiting for you to take your sweet time," Inuyasha said suddenly, pouring himself a second glass of water from the clay pitcher on the table.

Kagome picked up her spoon and began to take her breakfast silently, still intently watching the sun's yellow-red light as it grew in the corners of the windowpanes and seemed to light aflame the bare wood of the forest outside.

"Don't even think about picking wrong paths on purpose," Inuyasha ordered as he narrowed his eyes at her, following where her gaze had gone. "If I ever find out you're lengthening this trip, I'll just kill you sooner."

Kagome's eyes snapped away from the window, burning as they met Inuyasha's gaze. "You can drag me around on this leash, Inuyasha, and you can treat me like a dog," her voice was harsh and cold as it slipped through her teeth. "You can throw your threats at me as easy as you twitch your ears. You can take away everything from me. You can take my dignity, and my humanity, and even my life, but you will never break me, and I will _never_ be willingly subordinate to you." Her eyes flashed. "I'd rather _die_ under this curse than submit to it, even to break the spell."

"What a pretty speech. Now finish your breakfast."

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KAGOME REFLEXIVELY BROUGHT her hand up to her neck with a gentle slap as she sighed. She and Inuyasha had departed as soon as she had finished her breakfast, and they went quickly to Ariobree, the nearest town after. Ariobree primarily relied on its livestock for economy, and for the immense amount of animal residents there was always attracted a large host of horseflies and biting insects.

Almost wearily, Kagome brought her fingertips to her face so that she might massage her temples, trying to will away a pinching ache that had been buzzing in her head for most of the day. It was an awkward pinch, more distressing than painful, and it felt like she was on the edge of a memory.

"Where to next?" Inuyasha asked pleasantly, flicking his ear to shoo away a buzzing bug as it fluttered around his head.

"Hell," Kagome replied evenly as the pinching in her skull multiplied and blurred her vision. She blinked in attempt to clear her head.

"Very funny. I asked you a question, woman, now answer it."

"I did answer, you conceited pig," Kagome responded in the same monotone voice she had adopted for those occasions when conversing with Inuyasha became necessary on some account.

"Fine, then," Inuyasha grumbled. "Stay here. I'll come back for you when I'm ready to go."

Kagome exhaled in frustration as she felt herself take root to the messy and muddy winding dirt road. She sat down dejectedly while people walked by her uneasily, skirting around her and staring without shame.

"Have fun, you bloated toad..." Kagome wearily called out after Inuyasha. She was greeted with a somehow unsatisfying silence and a dramatic increase of pain in her head, which she finally decided was due to Inuyasha's tormenting.

Kagome sat alone for nearly half an hour, with nothing more entertaining to do than drum her fingers on her knee and swat away the bugs that hummed about her ears. The whickering of a playful horse drifted over her and she ruefully wished she had been born a sheep herder. It was a solitary job, and she would not meet as often with foreigners who would curse her. She doubted a wolf would enchant her to get at her sheep, and she dryly thought that a trained herding dog would be more loyal to her than Inuyasha had proved himself to be.

But then there was the matter of bugs, Kagome thought with a sigh as she slapped away another insect from her neck.

"I swear, Inuyasha... I should kill you for this," she mumbled.

"Lord Inuyasha, you say?" came a disembodied voice from the pathway.

"I wouldn't go straight to adding 'lord', but, yes, all the same," Kagome responded without paying much heed. After a moment she blinked and looked down, wondering from where the voice had come. On her folded knee was a tiny flea who had paused thoughtfully with his claw resting on his chin.

"Do tell," he finally said in his cracky voice, "where is Lord Inuyasha now?"

"Uhh..." Kagome said. "I'm not sure, but I hope he's in a lot of pain."

"Oh, drat..." the little bug whined quietly.

"He's bound to turn up sooner or later," Kagome went on to say as she rubbed at her head. "He has to come get me at some point. Why are you looking for him?" she asked, hardly considering that conversing with a bug was having her at the receiving end of worried looks from milling townfolk.

"I am Myouga, retainer of Lord Inuyasha's late father and obliged to Lord Inuyasha's service."

"Oh... I see," Kagome said skeptically. She had never known Inuyasha to be worthwhile enough for a retainer, and she also wondered how common it was for servants to be minute flea demons, as she had never seen such a thing.

"And who are you to Lord Inuyasha?" the little flea asked, ignorant to Kagome's doubts.

"I'm Kagome. I'm a priestess from... uh, far away. I'm Inuyasha's poor abused travel guide, and I'm helping him find his lost love. I really pity her."

"Hmm, something tells me you aren't getting on well with Lord Inuyasha," the flea said thoughtfully.

"No, not really. Who does get on well with him? He's rude and selfish. Oh, look. Here comes Sir Good News himself," Kagome mumbled out in annoyance as Inuyasha materialized from a turn in the road.

"Come on, wench, follow me," Inuyasha snapped as he approached Kagome.

"Lord Inuyasha!" Myouga interjected.

"Old man Myouga, eh? What do you want this time, bloodsucker?" Inuyasha asked as the flea bounced up to Inuyasha, pinching a sample of blood from the man's nose in response to which he was smacked.

"As welcoming as ever, I see..." the flea grunted painfully.

"Inuyasha has a heart of stone," Kagome said coldly as she crossed her arms over her chest. She glared at him venomously and was answered with a smirk.

"Lord Inuyasha," Myouga continued, glancing nervously at the two people before him as he wondered from where all the sudden oppressive tension had grown. "I bring rumors of Naraku as you requested."

"That bastard..." Inuyasha growled, his mood turning sour in favor of melancholy memories.

"I have gathered news of his great secret. It seems that Naraku has a jewel of power, which grants him everlasting life. It has recently shattered, and half of the shards are scattered throughout the world. If you can smash the second half so that the entire jewel is broken into one thousand shards, he will lose his power and die."

"He put his life into a jewel or does the jewel give him life?" Kagome asked, blinking in confusion.

"He put his life into it with black magic. This gemstone is a magical relic, and he has put his soul into it so that he might be preserved forever. The only way to defeat him is to break this jewel."

"Where does he keep the jewel?" Inuyasha questioned.

"I am not sure. Until I learn more, it would be best if you were to find shards that he is missing so that he may not reassemble the jewel. I actually heard that there was such a shard here in this very town, but I have been unable to locate it."

"Who is Naraku, anyhow?" Kagome inquired. Myouga looked up at her with his eyes widened.

"You know nothing of Naraku?"

"I am from very far away," Kagome explained. "I know the landscape of this place only."

"All you're good for," Inuyasha grumbled.

Kagome sighed as she shot a cold glare at Inuyasha. "So, who is Naraku?"

"I can't believe Lord Inuyasha hasn't told you. He's a dark magician. He lays curses on people and takes a great deal of joy in causing pain by the use of cunning and deceit."

"He sounds terrible," Kagome responded. "But Inuyasha doesn't tell me much of anything."

"Naraku is terrible, and he is responsible for the curse laid on the Priestess Kikyou."

"Who's Kikyou?"

"Don't you know? Inuyasha's lady fair!" Myouga proclaimed.

"Shut the hell up, you foolish flea. As for Naraku, do you think if we search for these shards or whatever we'll find him eventually?" Inuyasha snapped with a scowl on his face.

"Taking such a course would inevitably draw out a meeting," Myouga affirmed. "But do not attack him outright. You must destroy the jewel, or he will be invincible. Also, I do not know how many fragments there are, what they look like, the true powers within them, or how to find them."

"In other words, you know nothing useful," Inuyasha responded wryly. Myouga tapped his tiny fingers together.

"Well..."

"I think something's wrong," Kagome blurted out suddenly, looking around the town after she stood up from the dirt road. Under the cool winter sun, it was tranquil and ordinary. People were going about their business, leading cows and horses and goats from their pens to barns or to barns from pens, some villagers with donkeys dragging wagons of feed and hay and tins of milk along behind them. Despite its normalcy, there seemed to be a baleful sheen about it. There were no storm clouds in the sky, and there were no rustlings from demons or even any scuffles between either animals or humans. Kagome could find no menacing presence around her, no matter how hard she looked.

Still, Kagome felt her thoughts slipping into emptiness as the foreboding feeling increased, and with it the pinching in her head increased. It felt as if something were channeling her priestess' energy for her, rather than when she channeled it herself as if through an arrow. It was as if her attention was being diverted without her control, like watching herself perform acts she did not understand in a dream.

"I said _what's wrong!"_ Inuyasha yelled at her. Kagome licked her lips.

"I don't know... something with malicious spiritual energy... it's... is..." Kagome said before her eyes rolled to the back of her head briefly. Her eyelashes fluttered and she wobbled unsteadily as Inuyasha and Myouga watched in startlement. Instead of falling to her back or fainting or even crying out, Kagome shook her head as if trying to displace a terrifying image, and then she took a step towards the forest from which they had come earlier in the day.

"... Kagome?" Inuyasha asked suddenly, taking a step after her in his curiosity to know what it was to which she was reacting. He unsheathed his sword and let it hang at his side, and meanwhile Myouga remained silent as he buried himself into Inuyasha's hair.

Kagome took off at an abrupt sprint with no warning.

Inuyasha spluttered and easily caught up to her, pacing beside her with a look of annoyance on his face.

"Where the _hell_ do you think you're going!"

Before Kagome could make an answer at all, or before Inuyasha could even discover if she was capable of giving a sensical answer, she had led the small group around to the edge of the forest, where loomed in front of them a great demon with two dark lips. It was covered in a coat of thick brown hair that was tattered and coarse, with a sharp muzzle like a fox's and rowed with pristine fangs protruding from its face. As it opened its mouth to roar, it revealed several extra sets of fangs dripping with saliva, and a creature that might have been a large bear now seemed more like a monster. It tossed its head to and fro madly.

Kagome was staring up at it without fear, and neither at its fangs nor at its lengthy claws. Instead she was looking up at the forehead, where she seemed to focus on something invisible to Inuyasha. Her arms were tense but not with emotion, instead in concentration to match her ragged breathing. Her fingers clenched and unclenched unsteadily at her side, as if searching for something to hold.

Her eyes were clearer than ever, but in a way that suggested that she was looking through them and seeing an entirely different world than Inuyasha was seeing. Shaking his head, Inuyasha readied his sword to strike the demon.

But not before Kagome leapt at the demon herself.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha cried, mouth dropping in horror as the bearish demon took a single swipe at the girl clawing at is forehead. Kagome was sent hurling backwards through the air until she collided into a tree with a resounding crack that had Myouga wincing from his hiding place near Inuyasha's ear. She sank down into a silent pile at the base of the tree, cradled between the roots, and offered only one pitiful attempt to push herself up from the ground before she resigned herself to collapsing. Her wrist twitched once, and her fingers continued to clasp and unclasp, but otherwise she became completely still, face down in the dirt with her legs crumpled around her at an odd angle.

"What an idiot..." Inuyasha growled, aptly leaping several feet over to avoid the demon's swipe. "You'll have to do better than that to get _me_ down!" Inuyasha challenged as he landed. He pivoted on his heel to face the demon again, and with a vigorous lunge he raced towards the demon and in the midst of a jump cleanly sliced its head off, and was left only minutely surprised by the lack of blood.

"See, no big deal!" Inuyasha smirked proudly, resheathing his sword at his side. He had hardly begun wandering over to where Kagome still lay, however, that he turned around upon hearing a rustle, and watched in disgust as the demon's body found its way back to the head, at which time the demon stood tall and resumed its angry look.

"What the hell..." Inuyasha mumbled. He grasped for his sword again. He defended himself from a swing of the demon's thick claws, bracing himself as the force pushed him back several feet. He dodged a wave of claws and a gnashing of teeth by leaping into the trees, soaring over the demon's head and removing it again. Before the two pieces could regroup, Inuyasha sliced the pieces of the body further. When he had finished, he was slightly more worried by the lack of blood.

He watched as the strips of flesh remained still. Several moments went on that saw no disturbance, and Inuyasha began to stand up straight. And then the pieces twitched and conglomerated once more, and the beast was much angrier than it had been as it stood and roared.

"What the hell!" Inuyasha cried out in frustration.

"Lord Inuyasha!" Myouga finally spoke. "Did you see where--" he was cut off as Inuyasha jumped away from a sweep of claws. He resumed again with, "Did you see where Priestess Kagome was staring?"

"At its forehead?"

"Aim for that spot!" Myouga ordered. Inuyasha nodded once and licked his lips, diving again for the demon. With one clean blow, he split its head into two separate halves, and black blood and chipped bone sprayed the area in a shower. In the midst of the bloodshed was a pale, glimmering purple shard of jewelry that landed among the pieces of shattered skull.

The demon did not move again.

When Inuyasha was confident that he had finally finished the monster off, he sheathed his sword and crouched down by the sliver of glassy jewelry.

"What's this?" Inuyasha asked curiously as he picked it up, twirling it carefully between his calloused fingers.

"A shard of the power jewel, the Shikon! Naraku's life jewel!" Myouga answered with a gasp. "It must have been what Priestess Kagome was sensing!"

Inuyasha provided no response for his retainer, but he rolled the fragment into his palm and carefully studied it. He could feel a certain power pulsating from within it, a radiant power that felt addictive and dark. It almost seemed to promise strength.

"Lord Inuyasha," Myouga started as he watched a hungry look flicker in Inuyasha eyes. "Give the shard to the priestess."

"What!" he snapped in return, the promise of the jewel gone from mind. "Hell no! One, she's out cold. Two, I'm the one who got it. It's mine!"

"Lord Inuyasha, look," Myouga instructed, pointing a minute finger towards Kagome. Her fingers were still coiling and uncoiling, looking for something.

"What the hell is she doing?"

"It is my guess that she is called to the shard. Just put it in her hand and see what happens."

"Did you see how possessed she was in getting _to_ it, old flea! She had absolutely no sense! There's no telling what the hell she would do if I put this in her hand!"

Myouga blinked for a moment and held his many claws still at his sides, as if gathering his wits about him. "If I didn't know you any better, I'd say you sounded worried, Lord Inuyasha. Well, fear no--"

"Why the hell would I be worried, you batty old flea?" Inuyasha growled while giving the tiny bug an ample view of his fangs. "She knows where Kikyou is, and I'm not about to pass up that kind of chance."

"Alright, alright! Just put it in her hand!" Myouga ordered, bouncing around nervously. Inuyasha scowled at the flea but advanced towards Kagome with a sigh. Carefully, he pressed the little slice of jewel into her palm. Her fingers curled around it tightly, and a pale pink light drifted from between her clasped fingers. When her hand loosened again, the shard was a translucent, bright pink instead of purple, and the power that streamed from it was no longer addictive and vengeful but pure and strong and clean. Kagome's grip tightened once again around it, but nothing more happened.

"Glad I was right on that one..." Myouga mumbled.

"Myouga..." Inuyasha started with a growl.

"Ah! Let's go!" the flea said. "Lord Inuyasha, Foxbrush is less than a half a day's walk this way. I'm sure Priestess Kagome wouldn't mind a slight detour, especially now that she needs to rest," Myouga finished. The small demon removed the shard of gemstone from Kagome's hand and tucked it safely into her sash.

"So I get elected to carry the useless woman again!" Inuyasha grumbled in frustration. However, he leaned down and pulled Kagome from the ground, slinging her over his shoulder carelessly and following the flea's words for direction towards Foxbrush. With slumped shoulders, he listened to the little flea chatter incandescently about the events transpiring in the rest of the world.


	6. Chapter 06: Catnaps & Back Aches

**SLEEPING STRANGER**

**Chapter 06: Catnaps & Back Aches**

"MY, MY," THE old priestess Kaede mumbled as Inuyasha set Kagome down on a pallet made up in Kaede's front room. The elderly woman had in her palm the Shikon shard that Inuyasha had secured from the demon, her old and tired fingers rubbing over it slowly as she examined it thoughtfully. Her eyes flickered up towards where Kagome laid peacefully on the quilts, her head resting on a soft pillow. "No wonder this shard was so attracted to Kagome."

"Don't you mean Kagome was attracted to the shard?" Inuyasha corrected, raising an eyebrow. He sat down heavily across from Kaede, sending dust up in the air as the old wooden panels were disturbed by his sudden weight.

"No, I surely mean the shard is attracted to her," Kaede insisted with a cracky chuckle, leaning forward and tucking the jewel fragment back into Kagome's sash.

"What do you mean, Lady Kaede?" Myouga asked as he leaped down from Inuyasha's shoulder. He looked up at the elderly priestess in unhidden curiosity and interest.

"Let us wait until Kagome awakens before we begin with explanations," Kaede said, wearily standing and slowly going to the doorway of her old home. She paused before telling her guests, "I have some business to attend to several houses over. I shall be back within the hour. You are free to join me, Myouga, and tell me of your travels." Myouga energetically bounced along after her, offering news from all over the world. Kaede was much more interested in such tales than Inuyasha was.

Inuyasha himself stayed in the hut, yawning from time to time and flicking his ear in restlessness. He rested his elbow on his knee and his cheek on his palm, tapping the floor with the claws of his free hand. His eyelids began to droop wearily, eyes burning, and his mouth pulled open in another yawn. He shifted to stretch his back, and then resumed his crumpled position. Beside him, Kagome rolled onto her side and inhaled deeply in her sleep. Inuyasha scratched an itch on his shoulder. Kagome's hands drew about her collarbone snuggly. Inuyasha sighed. Kagome's legs curled in towards her body, tucking close against her stomach.

"Alright, that's enough of this," Inuyasha finally stated. He shoved himself up off the ground and thundered out of the house as noisily as possible, and he kept going until he heard the satisfying sound of Kagome's angered screams.

"Inuyasha!" she yelled out. "I _hate_ you!" she proclaimed as she stormed out of the cottage.

"That's no way for a priestess to speak. Good morning to you, too, sunshine."

"I can speak anyway I want!" Kagome continued at a yell. "And it's not even morning! You never have the decency to let me sleep until morning!"

"Hey, I let you have plenty of sleep," Inuyasha said with a playfully wounded look in his expression.

"Look at the sky! It's still completely dark! And why does my back hurt so?"

"Probably when you hit that tree. Why did you even do such a stupid thing, anyway?"

"I never hit a tree!" Kagome responded. "And why would hitting something make my back hurt? Can I test it out on you?" she threatened before she gave Inuyasha her most terrible punch, throwing her fist into his chest. He didn't even flinch at the impact.

"Not like that, you idiot, and don't hit me! I mean when you ra--"

"Inuyasha," the elderly priestess said as she returned from what business she had finished. She gave Inuyasha an authoritative look. "Let us go inside."

Inuyasha followed Kaede into the cottage once more, Kagome trailing along behind with her brow drawn in confusion.

"Alright, explain!" Inuyasha ordered as soon as the elderly woman had settled on the rug by her fireplace.

"Who are you?" Kagome insisted, standing across from her.

"I am the priestess Kaede," she replied. "I have raised Inuyasha for the past four years."

"So this is Inuyasha's hometown? Where are we, anyway? Did you know Inuyasha has no manners? Did you know he doesn't even respect human life?" Kagome carried on as she sat down delicately across from the priestess. Inuyasha flopped down beside her, stirring up more dust.

"This is Foxbrush, and yes, it is Inuyasha's hometown. And yes, teaching manners to this boy is beyond impossible. I have tried my hardest, but alas, it seems in vain."

"Enough!" Inuyasha called, seething and red-faced. "Explain!"

"Kagome, my dear, what is the last thing you remember?"

"Um..." Kagome paused thoughtfully, squinting her eyes. "I was... we were in the village..." she said. "There was something wrong, some kind of malicious spiritual being. I started mentioning it to Sir Grumps-a-Lot and then everything went blank. I don't remember anything after that."

"There was a demon and you jumped at it, like the ignoramus that you are, and were thrown into a tree," Inuyasha helpfully inserted as Kagome shook a threatening fist at him.

"Look in your sash. In there is a shard of jewelry." Kagome quizzically dug into the folds of her sash, retrieving the small pink fragment.

"What is it?" she asked as she examined it. It sparkled in the flickering firelight, and Kagome could feel a sense of drawing power radiating from it. It felt nice to hold, warm and elegant and pure.

"This is a piece of the Shikon jewel."

"What Naraku uses for his life relic?" Kagome asked.

"Indeed," Kaede replied.

"Do you know anything more about it?" Kagome questioned her sincerely. "Myouga hadn't known much else."

"I found what I could," Myouga defended himself hastily.

Kaede chuckled pleasantly. "It was crafted just over one hundred years ago, a jewel of extraordinary magical and spiritual powers," Kaede explained.

"Is this what I was sensing in the town?" Kagome asked suddenly, looking back down at the shard. "It feels different now, but kind of... familiar."

"Yes, it is what caught your attention; a demon held it at the time. You are an extremely strong priestess, Kagome, and therefore the shard was drawn to you. The jewel is attracted to spiritual energy, and I imagine it has been a long time since it has been in the possession of a priestess as spiritually adept as you are. That would explain your magnetism to it. You undoubtedly purified it of its evil intents."

"I'm not _that_ strong," Kagome insisted, glaring as Inuyasha gave a snort of agreement. "I'm just an apprentice, Lady Kaede, and not even a very good one."

"Be that as it may, a priestess of your power has not been seen for many, many years," Kaede explained.

"Why?" Kagome asked. In her own time, she had known herself to only be average of spiritual power. She had been no greater than her own mother or grandmother, and she had no direct talent in any spiritual field.

"Many things have changed over the years, Kagome, and much of it interrelated with the Shikon jewel. Naraku had the jewel commissioned over a hundred years ago, and because it feeds off of spiritual power, Naraku needed priestesses to keep feeding the jewel. So he kidnapped priestesses, or courted them under pretense, and kept them until their power had been given entirely to the jewel."

"Wait a second-- is this thing going to strip me of my power?" Kagome asked in fear, holding the jewel away from herself.

"Oh, no," Kaede responded lightly with a chuckle. "Only if Naraku specifically draws the power from you."

"Good," Kagome replied and relaxed her shoulders. "So Naraku single-handedly took all the priestesses?"

"Not at all. He took many, but he also cursed many, as he has done to Kikyou. But out of fear of being abducted, many who were born to be priestesses turned away from the position and flocked to any other profession they could hold. In this way, there began a shortage of holy folk. As you know, at one point all priestesses were given that right by birth. No one new was accepted; only daughters and sons of priestesses and priests were apprenticed, just as only sons of blacksmiths were blacksmiths, and nobles made nobles."

"Oh, I hadn't realized it has changed so much," Kagome admitted. "So a bunch of talentless priestesses began filling up temples and churches?"

"Exactly. The holy members of the temples came from an untalented class of poor folk who had no other options than to go to the church. They had no holiness about them, indeed not even holy intentions, and they cared little for their work. As well as that, the innate purity of priests and priestesses was decreasing, and continues to decrease, with changes in society. People have gained more freedom in their lives as they have drifted away from tradition, and can now do so much more as they please, but in exchange we lost a large amount of values and ethics and our innate talents to do certain jobs."

"That's terrible. A priest or priestess is marked by his or her ethics."

Kaede smiled warmly. "You are quite traditional yourself, aren't you?"

"No, hardly at all! Mama is always telling me I'm the most forward-thinking girl in the village. I mean, I still have ethics of course," Kagome babbled. "But I'm not heavy on traditional like Mama is."

Kaede offered her a strange look. "Indeed..." she murmured, rubbing her chin.

"Hey, are we done reminiscing yet? I'm bored," Inuyasha snapped abruptly from where he had been holding himself in quietude. "Let's talk about the jewel. What else do you know?"

"As I said, over one hundred years ago, Naraku commissioned a priestess named Midoriko to craft the Shikon jewel so that it might hold his life for him. Midoriko was a woman of extreme powers. She agreed to craft this jewel, as Naraku had tricked her into believing he would bewitch it with the pure intentions of steadying out a bad crop. She crafted the jewel so that he could bind his crops' lifetime to it, but instead of any life form of the crops he put his own soul inside."

"How did the Shikon jewel shatter?" Kagome asked, cocking her head in curiosity.

"His own guard did it, Lady Kagome," Myouga spoke up from his perch on Kaede's knee. "His guard hates being under his control, and therefore attempted to ruin him."

"Oh, my," Kagome murmured, looking down at the little sliver of jewelry before finally tucking it back into her sash.

"Lady Kagome," Myouga started. "I've been meaning to ask you from what part of the world you come, and how did you come by Inuyasha? You are nothing like anyone I have ever seen before."

"Inuyasha didn't tell you on the way here?" she asked.

"Why would I!" Inuyasha said with a snort. "I don't know where you come from!"

"Because you've never asked me! All you care about is working me to death," she answered coldly.

"Keh!"

"Lady Kagome?" Myouga repeated, nervously trying to dissuade whatever argument was approaching.

"I come from Sweetrye," she answered him, yawning slowly.

"Sweetrye?" the little flea asked thoughtfully. Kaede, as well, watched Kagome with interest.

"I'm not surprised you don't know it, it's very small. It's way, way out on the edge of civilization. Beyond Sweetrye, there're lots of fields... fields... and more fields, and eventually some ruin from old cities that were destroyed in a war years ago," Kagome explained as she waved her hand dismissively. "We're very independent, too. We grow a lot of grains, but we do keep our own small farms and a small herd of sheep and goats and a few cows. We make everything ourselves and rarely have anyone come visit. But," she added hastily, "it may have changed a lot since I was last there." She sounded nervous, and Inuyasha shot her a skeptical glance.

"What makes you think this place even exists anymore? Not even Myouga recognizes it, and he's been all over the world," Inuyasha said carelessly. Kagome bit the inside of her lip as his comment pierced her heart.

"Your astounding amount of comfort devastates me," she eventually responded caustically, trying to put her doubts aside.

"You're welcome," Inuyasha told her nonchalantly.

"I have not seen the entire world, Lord Inuyasha, although I'm flattered you think me so well-travelled," Myouga added.

"How long have you been away from your village, Kagome?" Kaede asked, folding her hands in her lap.

"About a hundred years," Kagome replied offhandedly, anxiously tucking a lock of coal-dark hair behind her ear, as if practicing nonchalance.

"... A hundred years?" Myouga repeated nervously.

"You haven't your own Shikon jewel, have you?" Kaede asked with twinkling and curious eyes.

"No," Inuyasha butted in. "She's just old."

"I am not old!" Kagome wailed. "I'm still just nineteen! You see, Lady Kaede," she continued, "I was put under a curse one hundred years ago. I told off a man name Musou and I was put to sleep for it. I was awakened by Inuyasha's ki--"

"NO!" Inuyasha interrupted suddenly, going rigid from his relaxed pose. "Don't say that!"

"Don't say what?" Kagome asked harshly. "That you ki--"

_"Shut up, woman!"_ Inuyasha crowed desperately as he rose from his spot on the floor forcefully, pointing an accusing finger at her. Kaede and Myouga watched in amusement.

"It's not my fault you kissed me!" Kagome finally called out.

"Stay here!" Inuyasha ordered before he stomped out of the hut with a sulky look on his face.

"Oh, that's fine," Kagome moaned. "And along with that lovely one hundred year catnap, I'm bound to Inuyasha, to follow and stay at his command like a dog. I'm stuck here, right on your floor, until he comes back for me. Oh, Lady Kaede! It's terrible!" she wailed. "He drives me so hard! He never lets me go to sleep until the moon is at is highest point in the sky, and he wakes me before the sun even colors the earth, and we walk so long and fast! He punishes me whenever he is in a bad mood, and he's sworn to kill me after I take him to Kikyou!"

"I was wondering why you've stayed by Inuyasha..." Myouga mumbled. "He scares most girls away rather fast, and you two seem to share a doubly hostile bond."

"What, with _his_ charming personality? Surely not," Kagome growled satirically, eyes flashing.

Kaede hummed thoughtfully as Kagome put her face in her hands. "Kagome, I do doubt he will follow through on his threat to kill you. He may be exceedingly reckless and often stupid, but he does not kill heartlessly. He is most likely threatening you only to scare you."

"It's unforgivable that he'd be so cruel, though," Kagome murmured from behind her hands. "If he was intending to scare me, it worked really well. I'm terrified."

Kaede reached forward to touch the side of Kagome's head lightly as she began to sob. "There is no need to live your life in terror of it, Kagome," she said as the younger girl's shoulders shook silently. "He will not kill you."

"But he'll drive me until I'll wish I were dead," Kagome mumbled through her tears. "Lady Kaede, I woke up to find my entire life gone and I've been reduced to no more than his searching dog. I don't know what to expect from a world a hundred years older than me, but he's not giving me a very good impression."

Kaede moved forward and gathered the young priestess up in her arms and rubbed her shoulder consolingly. Inuyasha, who had taken roost atop the roof and sat skulking, narrowed his eyes in anger as he listened to Kagome cry.

"Why don't you tell us about your life in Sweetrye," Myouga eventually spoke as Kagome's tears subsided, leaving her to rub her eyes with her palms while looking faintly embarrassed. "I can't help but be interested by it."

"Sure," Kagome said with a small sniffle. "I've already given you most of the basic details, though. What more would you like to know?"

"Well," Kaede intervened with a kind smile before Myouga could ask more on the history of the town. "What was your family like?"

"My family?" she hummed thoughtfully. Inuyasha, still on the roof, unwittingly perked an ear to Kagome's voice. "I live in the church with my mother and younger brother. Mama is a really good priestess," she said fondly, clapping her hands together and settling herself down on her knees with one more sniffle. "She goes to the next town over all the time because she's so perfect at healing people. She's made a lot of remedies unique to our town and she always sends a package of them off when we get visitors." Kagome laughed. "She always says she's good at it only because she was of fickle health when she was younger, so she really understands sickness well."

"What a pleasant woman," Kaede said warmly.

"She is. Oh, and my brother, Souta, is so cute," she said. "Well, except when he's annoying, of course. He's so soft-hearted, though, he just wants to help people. He's never had much spiritual power, but he has a lot of energy. He helps make medicines a lot, and he does a lot of busywork. He's really hard-working, much more than I am. And he's so practical, too, and he never runs out of energy."

A look of pain flashed over Kagome's face as she thought about her family. Years ago, when she had been alive and well and simple, she had yearned so much to go out into the world on her own, even if it meant never seeing her family and home again. She had her adventure now, and more than she had ever wanted to go exploring she just wanted to be with her family again, safe with them.

"What's wrong, dear?" Kaede asked.

"It's nothing. I'm just tired, I guess," Kagome said evenly. "I'm so worn out."

"I'll go get Inuyasha," Myouga stated. "So that you can move over to your bed."

"Thank you," Kagome replied as the little flea hopped to where the door had been left open. Before he could arrive there, however, Inuyasha materialized in the doorframe.

"Follow and go to bed," he mumbled out angrily. "We're leaving after lunch tomorrow."

Kagome glared coldly once more before shuffling quietly to the pallet, where she laid down and relaxed easily under the warm and flickering firelight. Kaede quietly put away the supper she had been eating before Inuyasha had showed up with an unconscious woman in his arms and went to her own bedroom on the second floor, and Myouga took roost in the rug by the fire. Inuyasha sat down in the corner of the room across from Kagome and stared at her gently rising and falling form, outlined softly by firelight, until his own mind began drifting off to sleep.

"I like Kaede," Kagome mumbled sleepily from where she laid. "She's so kind."

Inuyasha grunted in reply, slightly surprised that Kagome had stayed awake. "I thought you were so tired."

"I am, but I'm too tired to sleep," she responded as she inhaled stuffily, scrubbing her face against her pillow.

"That doesn't even make sense," Inuyasha grouched, shifting in his corner.

"Does to me. Inuyasha..."

"What?" he barked.

"Will you really kill me once we get to Kikyou..?" Kagome asked, a hint of trepidation in her thin, sleepy voice.

Inuyasha sighed and shifted, inwardly cursing Kaede for deteriorating the first strong hold he had over the young woman across from him. "No..."

"Did you take any pleasure in telling me you would kill me?" she continued angrily, her voice now more awake and heavy with bitterness.

"No," he admitted. "And I'd rather not talk about it."

"Of course not," Kagome growled tiredly, voice muffled by her pillow. "Of course not. Do you at least regret it?"

"I never regret anything," Inuyasha proclaimed with conviction, narrowing his eyes at Kagome's back.

"Of course not," she repeated with an angry sigh. "I'm still cross with you."

"Think I care? Go to sleep, or we'll leave early tomorrow."

"Bully..." she muttered faintly. She did not speak again, only laid quiet in the shadows that gathered where the low fire could not reach. Inuyasha looked across the long room, into the corner of the fireplace he was able to see at the angle where he sat, and he listened to Kagome's steady breathing. His glance moved once more as Kagome rolled over in her sleep. In the flickering light, in sleep, and obscured by the night, she first looked like Kikyou. After a moment, she looked like no one but herself.

Inuyasha's heart ached. He looked back at the fire and the aching turned cold, and he slept.


	7. Chapter 07: Mirrors

**SLEEPING STRANGER**

**Chapter 07: Mirrors**

ACRID SMOKE HUNG heavy in the air of the small workshop, and Kagome coughed as she waved her hand through the hot air to clear it. Inuyasha, unbothered by her obvious discomfort, continued working. Kagome only narrowed her eyes as the clinging ash in the air made them water.

With more patience and care than Kagome had ever before seen him exercise, Inuyasha pulled a hot strip of metal out of the oven with a pair of old, chipped tongs. He cooled it and then laid the steaming strip down carefully before he exchanged tools for a lean hammer and began pounding the metal into a more suitable shape.

"I can't believe you do this all day," Kagome said as the smoke and ash dwindled away to a steady warmth that shimmered out into the cold winter morning through the open door of Inuyasha's workshed. Inuyasha ignored her, concentrating on his job of pounding the metal with careful strokes before thrusting it back into the flame.

"You know," he said calmly, betraying his own frustration as he pulled the strip back out of the fire and began hammering again. "I think I'll name this sword Kagome."

"After me?" Kagome asked, eyeing him distrustfully.

"Yes," he answered after a moment. "You know why? Because this blade is completely off balance, out of shape, and impossible to fix." He smirked as Kagome shrieked at him unhappily before fading into a ruffled silence, annoyed.

Inuyasha resumed working on his impossible blade as Kagome slumped down as close to the propped door of the workshop as she could, searching futilely for fresh air. She shivered as the hot, smokey air cooled in the breeze coming through the door.

"Did you make the sword you carry around?" she asked.

"No," Inuyasha said almost mechanically.

"Did your dad?"

"No," Inuyasha repeated. "It was made from his fang, though."

"Was your dad even a smith?" Kagome asked. "I know Kaede said sometimes children don't follow in their parents' footsteps."

"No, my dad was a warrior," Inuyasha answered. Kagome faded into silence again, as did he. In the silence, he remembered his father -- a strong man with a deep, rich voice, who stood at his mother's side when ever he was at home. When he remembered his father, he recalled a disappointed look, deep with some sort of wisdom. Inuyasha would try to recall what he had done that was so disappointing, and then he would remember his father's advice. Do not look for glory, do not seek fame, do not search for strength if you do not find these things in order to protect something. Find something to protect. Inuyasha had always asked what he meant-- something to protect. He wondered if he meant a family, a job, a title, a reputation. His father would only shake his head sadly and look at him with disappointed eyes. His mother would smiled fondly, reach out and touch his cheek tenderly, and tell him that he would know some day what the warrior beside her meant with his words. His father would only hope.

"How many people get to choose their own jobs?" Kagome questioned suddenly, sending away thoughts of his disappointed father.

"Typically? Everyone," Inuyasha responded with a melancholy sigh. Thinking of his father meant thinking of the cart that brought his cold body back, still and unmoving; thinking of his father meant he thought of his mother, whose body went just as cold soon after his warrior father had come home.

"Everyone... how? Do you just decide you want to do something and go do it?"

"How else would you do it?" Inuyasha said grumpily. "Draw it out of a hat?"

"That's confusing. Doesn't it get chaotic that way?" Kagome pursued, coughing lightly as the smoke billowed up again.

"Not really," Inuyasha said, rolling his shoulders.

"What if everyone wants to do the same thing, or someone doesn't want to do anything? I mean, there can't really be people who want to do the stuff like trash burning and waste removal..."

"Well, some people don't go and find themselves a teacher, or they don't get accepted by a teacher because they can't pay tuition, so they are unskilled, and it's either take a disgusting job or don't get paid. It's first come first serve to get a master, and you have to afford it."

"When do you start studying? Do you live at home or do you live with your master?" Kagome continued.

"Whatever's easy. I lived with Toutousai the entire time I learned to be a smith," he said. "I started when I was about twelve."

"It seems so strange," Kagome admitted, coughing again. "Strange."

"Let's go get lunch."

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"LADY KAEDE," KAGOME said that afternoon as she dipped a spoon into her thick broth and left it resting against the bowl. "You and Inuyasha said yesterday that the Shikon jewel shard we have now was taken from the demon. Why did the demon even have it?"

"It enhances a demon's power by lending it energy transferred from spiritual power. Demons are attracted to it in order to make themselves stronger."

"How much more power does it give them? Does it just make them bigger and physically stronger, or they actually gain some kind of warped spiritual power?" Kagome continued.

"Do you ever stop asking questions?" Inuyasha snapped grumpily beside her. She turned and glared and threw a fist into his chest.

Kaede cleared her throat. "It depends on the monster. Usually it just enhanced their innate abilities. If a demon has a magic property, such as the ability to manipulate fire, then a Shikon shard would boost its power and capacity to manipulate fire, for instance."

"Oh, that's bad," Kagome murmured thoughtfully, tapping her chin. "And does it only increase the same amount no matter how big the shard? Or does a demon get more power if it has multiple shards or bigger shards?"

"I am unsure, but I do believe it is granted more power based on the quantity of shards."

"How many shards are there?" Kagome asked.

"Eat your damn lunch," Inuyasha swore, taking her hand and wrapping it around her spoon. "And stop punching me, it doesn't hurt."

"Kagome, I do not know," Kaede replied as the young priestess scowled at Inuyasha. Kagome took a small sip of her soup after she had finished glaring. "You shouldn't concentrate on collecting them, however. If you are going after Naraku, you should aim for destroying the remaining half of the jewel he has. However, do keep the shards you find. It is a good idea to keep the shards from Naraku's power, especially since you can purify them."

"Kikyou first," Inuyasha interrupted around a spoonful of meat and soup. "Then I'm going to kill Naraku."

"You're such a brute, Inuyasha. What do you mean by purify them? I'm not quite sure I understand."

"Holy hell, Kagome. Can't you just accept the fact you purify them and eat your damn soup?"

"I want to know!" Kagome declared angrily.

"By purify them, I mean that you cleanse them of their unholy energy. Basically, you put the shard to sleep so that it cannot be used for malicious power. Only Naraku can wake up the power once you put it to sleep."

"So demons can't use it after I purify it?"

"Correct," Kaede answered. "Now maybe you had better eat your soup."

"Where did Myouga go?" Kagome asked, spooning another bite of broth into her mouth.

"Just as I gather rumors of the shards here from passing travellers, he left this morning to find more on the jewel shards throughout the world," Kaede stated plainly. "He will attempt to rendezvous with you at various points in your trip should he find anything interesting, but come back here directly after retrieving Kikyou."

"Then Inuyasha will have two lovely, innocent ladies following him for reasons he cannot control," Kagome said with a sigh. "Luckily all who know him are aware that he is rude and crude and shrewd and my reputation should survive intact."

"What the hell was that for?" Inuyasha snapped.

"For exposing you to the truth. Hey! Go away--!" she yelped as Inuyasha stood up from the floor, readying to dump Kaede's bowl of soup on Kagome's head as the elderly priestess moved from the floor and went to her shelves.

"Kagome," Kaede said before a fight could break out. "I've been thinking on your curse, and I do believe I have a rather befitting gift for you." Both Inuyasha and Kagome watched with particular interest as Kaede moved to Inuyasha with a rosary made of purple beads and dull white teeth. Inuyasha, still hunched over to glare at Kagome, gave Kaede a suspicious look as she flung the beads around his neck.

"Why the hell are you giving this ugly thing to me? I'm not that witch," he barked, picking at it.

Kaede turned to Kagome. "Speak a word of subjugation."

"What?" Kagome asked.

"Call out a subduing word," Kaede repeated, ignoring confused glances.

"A subduing word? Like the ones he has for me? Like sit?" At Kagome's command, Inuyasha was pulled heavily to the ground.

"What the hell!" he yelled, voice muffled from his place on the floor.

Kagome's eyes widened gleefully. "Kaede, you're my hero!" she proclaimed, leaping up to embrace the old woman. "Now you cannot force me to follow your schedule, Inuyasha, because I can SIT you!" she cried out joyously. Inuyasha slammed to the ground once more.

"Why the HELL have you done this!" Inuyasha roared as he yanked at the beads, which would not leave his neck.

"You'll not get that rosary off," Kaede explained nonchalantly. "Only I, and I alone, can remove those beads. Maybe now you shall think twice before issuing a useless punishment on Kagome."

Inuyasha growled and Kagome's mood brightened.

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"IT DOES NOTHING for you to act like a big baby about it," Kagome informed Inuyasha as he glared at her with unconcealed contempt. He was upset with Kaede, who had single-handedly destroyed any sort of leverage he had over Kagome over the course of one night. He was also upset with Kagome for being smug about it.

"Keh," he answered as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Bitch."

"Alright, you two," Kaede said as she hobbled onto her porch. "Are you headed to Mixlevee?"

"Yes," Kagome replied. "I think that's the fastest way from here."

"Be careful. I've heard news from Mixlevee of a spirit causing trouble in their village."

"Some puny demon isn't going to stop me," Inuyasha declared with a snort. "Come on, you disaster," Inuyasha ordered as he carelessly took his cloak from Kaede and clipped it around his neck. Kaede sighed and handed Kagome a small pouch of money.

"Be careful, Kagome. Use this to be a weapon in Mixlevee."

"I will. Thanks for all your help, Lady Kaede." She waved cheerfully and tucked the little purse into her sash as she followed Inuyasha way from the village Foxbrush and into the woods. They walked silently during their voyage, with the white sun a high marble in the sky, its light coming in bright streams through the barren tree branches and casting the brush in cold winter light. The wind was hushed without even a simple breeze, and as Kagome watched Inuyasha ahead of her, she saw his ears perk in the directions of sounds she could sometimes not hear.

When evening came, they stopped in an oblong clearing several feet from the path. They made their camp and ate their supper in silence. When he was finished, Inuyasha bounded up in a tree, hidden in the pale moonlight, and Kagome leaned back against his tree and closed her eyes as she shifted, looking for some place at least partially comfortable to slumber.

Halfway through the night, when the moon was a thin, clear sliver hung high in the sky, she awoke to a throbbing head ache. She stirred and sleepily brought her fingers up to massage the soft skin of her temples. After she had awakened more fully, she recognized the aching and blinked her eyes wide.

"Inuyasha!" she called hoarsely up into the trees as the aching increased. "Hey, Inuyasha!"

"What the hell do you want?" he asked grumpily from his roost in the lofty branches of his tree.

"I think there's a Shikon shard near by," Kagome answered quietly. Inuyasha leaped down in front of her, crouching and perking his ears as he sniffed the air curiously.

"Which way?" he asked, flicking an ear.

"This way," she instructed, standing from her place. Inuyasha followed her as she wandered away from camp, wading through the strange new sense with determination not to lose control of herself. She went slowly and carefully, for she could not see well in the stark darkness, and Inuyasha grew annoyed behind her.

She blanched violently when a familiar voice called out, "Where do you think you're going!"

"What do you mean where am I going?" Inuyasha snapped from behind her. "I'm following you!"

"That wasn't me, Inuyasha!" Kagome said. "If you'd open your ears and listen to where it came from!"

A snickering, smirking copy of Kagome walked confidently out from the trees, placing a hand on her hip. Kagome blinked as she looked herself in the eye, mouth partially ajar.

"Wow, this tunic does nothing for my figure," she said finally, picking at the thick fabric resentfully.

"What the hell is this?" Inuyasha snapped, still standing slightly behind Kagome and with only confusion apparent. He had not even drawn his sword.

"I'll let you pass if you hand over the shard. Could you really kill your woman?" the copy asked solemnly.

"Okay. For one thing, Kagome is not my woman. For another, no way in hell are we giving you the Shikon shard."

"Fine," the false Kagome said with a sigh. She suddenly went blundering forward until she was standing next to Kagome. A cloud of dust sprang up around them, obscuring the two women from view, as Inuyasha growled and raced forward. The dust settled as he neared them, leaving two completely identical women between whom he could find no difference.

"Inuyasha! Don't be tricked by this! I'm right here!" one Kagome said.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? I'm the real Kagome!"

"Alright, missus, this is silly," a Kagome said, glaring at her twin. "You know you're the fake one."

"Don't be ridiculous! I'm the real Kagome!" the other answered in indignation. Inuyasha raised an eyebrow as one Kagome flew at the other, pulling hair and screeching angrily.

"Get off me!" the other Kagome called, kicking and scratching.

"I've got an idea!" one shouted. They both settled down, dusting off their tunics and glaring at each other mutually, unnerving Inuyasha with their likeness. "Inuyasha, I apologize for this. Sit," she said. Inuyasha yipped and slammed into the ground.

"Kagome," he growled as he stood up. "I'll get you for that." He glared hard at Kagome, and then at her copy, who was confused entirely by what she had just witnessed, and then he lurched forward. The second Kagome screamed and hooked an arm around Kagome's neck.

"You come any closer and I'll suffocate her!" she called.

"Uhh..." Kagome mumbled. "You're not very strong, I don't think this is enough to suffocate me. I'm sorry."

Inuyasha drew his sword and rushed forward. The copy yelled out in fright and vanished in a puff of smoke, which left Inuyasha blinking at the empty space where she had stood.

"She's going that way," Kagome offered, pointing to where the shard was slowly getting dimmer and dimmer from sight. Inuyasha instantly bounded off in that direction, until he came to an orange-tailed rock that inched sluggishly along the ground. Inuyasha stomped on the rock with his heel and was rewarded with a small screech and a puff of smoke, which revealed a tiny fox demon scowling up at Inuyasha while massaging his head.

"Ooh!" Kagome cooed, forgetting all crimes the child had committed. "How cute! A baby fox! Why is a baby fox looking for the shards?"

"It's none of your business, human! I don't interact with wimpy humans and lowly half-demons," he said haughtily, crossing his arms and turning his nose up into the air. Inuyasha hit the boy across the top of his head, growling. The fox whined and rubbed his head.

"Inuyasha..." Kagome chided as she turned to the little fox. "What's your name?"

"I am Shippou, the magnificent fox demon!" he proclaimed.

"Magnificent indeed," Kagome agreed, pretending to look impressed.

"Yes," Shippou confirmed as he flicked a piece of imaginary dust from his tunic. "And I'll have you know that I must take your Shikon shards."

"Why?" she asked. Inuyasha sighed heavily and leaned against a tree. Kagome could do this her own way for five more minutes, he decided. And then he would take over.

"Because, human, I need them to take revenge for my family!" he declared importantly. "Don't give me that look!" he said as Kagome's face turned sad. "I don't need pity!"

"Okay, okay!" Kagome replied appeasingly. "I just lost my parents recently, too."

"Really?" the fox said, his guarded speech replaced with childish innocence. Kagome nodded and patted his head. Inuyasha tapped his foot against the forest floor irritably.

"Yes," she replied sadly.

"Hey, are you two drips done with the sob stories yet?" Inuyasha finally barked.

"Why you stupid half-demon!" Shippou growled. "There is no sob story!"

"Shippou," Kagome said gently. "What happened to your family?"

"The Thunder Brothers..." he replied vaguely, his shoulders slumping sorrowfully.

"I see..." Kagome murmured. She did not know who the Thunder Brothers were, but she could not bring herself to ask Shippou.

"Even with shards, a puny kid like you can't beat those two," Inuyasha reprimanded with a snort.

"Why you...!"

"I have an idea!" Kagome proclaimed over the noise of the stirring argument. Inuyasha shrank back in the trees and Shippou looked up at her curiously.


	8. Chapter 08: Fox Whiskers

**SLEEPING STRANGER**

**Chapter 08: Fox Whiskers**

"AN IDEA?" SHIPPOU repeated curiously, blinking up at Kagome, who brushed her hands free of imaginary dust.

"Yes, an idea. Let's strike a bargain, Shippou."

"A bargain?" Inuyasha growled. "Just take the shards from him!"

"No, let's make a bargain. How about Inuyasha helps get revenge with you, and after that you give me your Shikon shard," she suggested to the little fox demon. Inuyasha spluttered indignantly behind her.

"What! You just volunteer me for this?" he snapped irately.

"Why not?" Kagome asked him with a scoff. "You _are_ strong enough to beat these Thunder Brothers, aren't you?"

"Of course I am!" Inuyasha shouted. "But--"

"It sounds like a good deal to me!" Shippou said brightly. And so they set off by moonlight.

Kagome's head ached terribly enough that her fingers trembled as she brushed hair from her face. She told herself that it would all pass soon enough, when Shippou surrendered the shards to her, and she ignored it as best she could.

Shippou led them through the forest easily, bouncing along like a rabbit in front of them. He would occasionally come back to insult Inuyasha, and Inuyasha would hit him. Then they would fight, and one demon or another would come whine to Kagome so that she might punish the other.

"What am I, your babysitter?" Kagome snapped at Inuyasha as he complained about the fox demon who now settled himself on Kagome's shoulder.

"Kagome," Shippou wailed. "He hit me on the head again!"

"Inuyasha, don't make me use the 's' word on you."

"You use the 's' word on me, I'll use the 's' word on you and leave you behind."

Shippou gave them both a strange look and then carelessly said, "You two are so weird." He bounced on top of Kagome's head and she flinched; the closer he brought the impure shards to her, the more her head ached, and he recklessly climbed over her.

"Get off of Kagome," Inuyasha snapped when Kagome winced as he scrambled over her. "Pansy-pants."

"Shippou," Kagome said gently as the little fox demon sat on her shoulder and pressed his tail against the crook of her neck. "I think you're a great demon, and I want to help you, but could you possibly not climb on me while you have a Shikon shard in your pocket? It hurts my head."

"Why does it hurt your head?" he asked innocently.

"They're not purified."

"Oh," Shippou replied, although he was still confused. He knew no difference between purified and impure shards. He leapt carefully from her shoulder and went bounding off into the trees as Inuyasha growled at him.

"Hey, Inuyasha," Kagome said suddenly. "You _are_ strong enough to kill the Thunder Brothers, aren't you?"

"Keh! I told you already! Of course I am," he said easily from in front of her, taking a quick glance over his shoulder and snarling. "What do you take me for?"

"Okay, okay," Kagome relented with a sigh.

"We're here!" Shippou announced as the trees thinned. They had come to a large meadow at a far, untouched edge of the forest. The earth was dry and cracked and rocky, and nothing grew but several scrubby, gray weeds that poked their heads up from the broken earth tiredly. A lance of lightening scarred the sky and Kagome shrunk back suddenly.

"Thunder Brothers," she whispered. "Of course."

"What was that?" Inuyasha asked, flicking an ear.

"Hey, I have an idea," Kagome said, standing near a thick tree trunk. "Why don't you stay me right here and come get me after you've killed these guys?"

"Uh... no," Inuyasha responded, turning to face her. "You need to tell us if they have any shards."

"They do," Kagome assured. "Over that way," she pointed towards a long scar in the meadow that ran like an old, dry riverbed through the land. "See, I told you. Now you can stay me here."

"At this rate we'll have the jewel in no time," Inuyasha said in predatorily, cracking his knuckles delightedly. "Let's go."

"They have a hut built over there," Shippou said as he indicated the swerving, sharp-cut rent. Inuyasha calmly began approaching the gorge as Shippou leapt up on his shoulder anxiously, scrambling around through his hair.

"No!" Kagome shouted, clinging to the tree trunk as the thunder rolled restlessly overhead in the dark sky. "You have to leave me here! Won't I get in the way?"

"You probably will," Inuyasha answered nonchalantly as he turned to face her once more. "But at least over _there_ I can keep an eye on you. Over _here_ something else will kill you."

"Shippou can guard me!" Kagome insisted. "Shippou's a demon!"

"Not a very big one," Inuyasha said. "No, you're coming with. You have to tell me where the Shikon shards are."

The thunder boomed again and Kagome shied back. "No!"

"Come on, what is the big deal? I won't let them kill you," Inuyasha said with a heavy sigh. "Anyway, this was your idea. I'm going to drag you along whether you like it or not."

Kagome approached him and punched him in the chest. "Stay me here!"

"What the hell is your problem!" he snapped. Shippou watched curiously from his place on Inuyasha's head.

"Stay me now, now, now!" She punched him one, two, three more times, enunciating every _now_ as clearly as she knew how. The thunder crackled like a roar in the sky, and Kagome squeaked.

"Ohh... I get it..." Inuyasha said, grinning as he glanced up at the cloud-smeared sky. "You were afraid of thunder that night at the church."

"I have a good reason!" Kagome claimed, clawing at the air as Inuyasha began to walk further into the meadow.

"And what is that?" he asked mockingly, quirking an eyebrow, as Kagome ran up beside him and punched him once more in the shoulder.

"None of your business," she hissed. "Please just leave me in the forest!"

"Aah, Kagome!" Shippou interjected. "It's okay. I used to be afraid of the thunder, too!"

"Hey, look. We're getting close," Inuyasha said, pausing by the gorge to turn and face Kagome again. "Just remember for next time that violence stops your fear," he teased, flicking an ear towards a rustling behind him when Kagome's eyes widened.

"Do you see what I see, little brother Manten?" Inuyasha turned to the voice and drew his sword from its sheath, glaring at the two men who had come over the edge of the scar.

"Why... yes, I do, dear big brother Hiten," the second man answered, eyes nearly gleaming with delight.

"A puny half-demon, his weakling wench, and their baby fox. How enticing," he said lazily. Kagome hid behind Inuyasha as he growled, and Shippou cowered in fear behind Kagome.

"We're gonna die!" Shippou wailed tragically as Hiten laughed at Inuyasha's growl.

"You aren't going to die, wimp," Inuyasha mumbled as the two brothers smirked down at him. He inwardly seethed that Kagome and Shippou had so little faith in him.

"Really?" the eldest, Hiten, said with an oily smooth voice. "How can you protect the little cub before I've struck him down with lightening? How can you protect your weakling wench before I snap her bones?"

"You can't do that!" Kagome squeaked from behind Inuyasha, a hand on his shoulderblade. "Besides! Inuyasha's killed hundreds of demons ten times more powerful than you are!"

"Yeah!" Shippou agreed, although he had never seen Inuyasha kill anything at all before. He hoped that Kagome was right about it. Inuyasha kept growling, although he felt his pride grow. They did have faith in him, he thought. Even if it was only a small faith.

"So much trust in a half-breed," the younger brother, Manten, said nonchalantly as his elder sibling chuckled.

"That's it!" Inuyasha yelled as he rushed forward, swinging his sword at the eldest. He would not be able to take them both on at once, but he had decided that the eldest would be the stronger. He thought that even Kagome could save herself from the younger for just a little while.

"Where are the shards, Kagome?" he yelled as Hiten used a glimmering trident to brace himself against Inuyasha's sword. The lightening flashed through the night sky and reflected off cold steel and fangs, pure white and electric.

"Hiten has three in his forehead, and Manten has two in his!" Kagome supplied, running in a cyclical pattern around him as Manten chased her delightedly. Shippou clung to her arms and cried out from time to time, repeating to himself that they had made a grave mistake.

Hiten smirked. "And what good is that knowledge to you if I kill you?"

"Nice one, brother Hiten!" Manten said, chasing playfully after Kagome.

"Shut up and concentrate on me!" Inuyasha demanded, again swinging his sword at the lithe man dancing before him. Hiten smirked and sprung up into the air, shooting a bolt of lightening down. Inuyasha leapt away from it agilely, growling as Hiten remained airborne. He sprung into the air, slicing his sword down in a gleaming arc and crashing it against Hiten's trident with a metallic cry that rang over the electric crackling of thunder.

"Puny half-breed," Hiten taunted as rain began to fall, cold and dark in the midnight.

"Worthless bastard," Inuyasha growled as their weapons sang again, rain clinging to his hair.

Kagome had been running in her circles around Inuyasha, and when he jerked suddenly away from her she had tripped. Shippou cried out as he tumbled out of her arms as she landed on her face. Kagome yipped and bounded up again, collecting Shippou in her arms roughly and racing off once more as Manten neared her. She was panting, Inuyasha noticed as he glanced over at her when he heard her yip. She was tiring out and Manten was only toying with her.

With Inuyasha distracted by Kagome, Hiten used the opportunity to send a bolt of electricity down at his opponent. It struck Inuyasha painfully, the deafening crash resounding in echoes against the edges of the sky; the force knocked him breathless and singed the tips of his hair and fingers, leaving him blinking. He coughed and grunted as pain pulsed through every limb of his body in an ache that covered every muscle.

Hurting, he sprang again at Hiten again. He could hear as Kagome's breathing got heavier and heavier, and Manten chuckled behind her. He fought faster.

"If only those stupid shards..." Kagome mumbled to herself as Shippou pressed himself against her and trembled. "If only I had a bow and arrow! Just one arrow!" she whispered fiercely. The rain turned the ground sodden and muddy, making Kagome's run more difficult as she fought to keep her feet moving lightly.

"A bow?" Shippou whimpered. "A bow and arrow?"

"Yes," Kagome confirmed through the sound of a thunder crash, throwing a fearful glance over her shoulder as Manten pursued her. She licked her lips, swallowed thickly, and knew that Manten was toying with her.

"How about this?" Shippou said. Kagome glanced down in her arms as Shippou disappeared in a puff of smoke. She nearly tripped as she realized she was now holding a poorly constructed bow and a bent arrow. "Hurry, Kagome!" Shippou, who had taken the form of a bow, insisted. "I can't hold this illusion forever, and the arrow will change back into a leaf real soon!"

And so Kagome nocked the crooked arrow in the bow. In one swift movement she stopped, spun, and shot the arrow in a precise and abrupt path. The bent arrow took on a pinkish glow around itself like a holy light, shimmering bright in the dark like a beacon, and it went straight enough to strike Manten in the forehead. It was a weak arrow, no more than hurling a small rock at someone in effect, but it was enough to knock one shard loose from the demon's forehead. The Shikon shard bounced and rolled away as Manten growled angrily.

He pounced forward suddenly, like a wild hunting cat, and his fingers closed around Kagome's neck before she could race off again. They landed in the cold mud, Kagome's back cracking painfully, and Shippou tumbled away from them, knocked out of breath.

Shippou panted wildly and leapt back at Manten, sinking his little fox fangs into the demon's hand as tightly as he could. Manten ignore the kit's teething and clamped his thick fingers tighter and tighter around Kagome's fragile neck, holding her body down in the mud as he straddled her. Shippou's eyes watered as he tried to press his teeth down harder, realizing that if he did not do something Kagome would surely die.

"I-Inu..." Kagome wheezed out at a tiny whisper, her fingers clawing at Manten's hands as she fruitlessly tried to pull them away. She could feel her fingernails pulling back thin layers of skin as she struggled for any air at all.

"You little bitch," Manten growled. "That really hurt," he informed her, referring to the wound in his head. His hands got tighter and tighter around her throat, and Kagome raked her fingernails over his face, leaving small, jagged scratches on his gray cheek, exposing raw, pink tissue. She tried to pull in a painful breath as she struggled to get away, rain dripping into her lips. Shippou clung resolutely to Manten's hand and Kagome's fingers dragged down her captor's cheek once more, deeper and more desperate as she groped for his eyes. The cuts she made along his cheek bubbled with little pearls of black blood that rushed down his face, heavier than the beads of sweat and rain falling into the mud and hot as it smeared against Kagome's fingers. She bucked uselessly under him, kicking out her legs and squirming as her lips bubbled with saliva. Her face pinpricked with pain. Manten leaned closer into her as Shippou went on clinging and crying and she went on scrabbling.

"Inu..." Kagome mumbled.

"You are a bitch," Manten whispered to her over the pattering rain, pushing her deeper in the mud. "And I'm enjoying every moment of this. Watching the life leave you, watching as you foolishly search for a way out. I love killing young girls, because it's always the same. They all forget themselves and become weak, like fish flopping on dry land for water, trying to get away from me."

Manten knocked Shippou away with one strong thrust of his arm, sending the small kit smashing into a rock where he closed his eyes and sank into darkness, covered with mud and dirty rain water. And then Manten was strangling her again with both hands. Kagome's mind was growing foggy and she was sinking into a hazy, dreamy state. With dazed eyes over which her eyelashes flickered and trembled, she watched her captor snarl at her, her mouth partially ajar and her lip turning dark.

"Giving up so soon?" he murmured down at her with disgust as she began going limp. "Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic."

His fingers moved and Kagome was able to get half a breath of sharp, painful air soaked with humidity and rain before she was being strangled again, body numbing around her and overtaking the tingling sensation in her limbs, coldness covering her like a disease.

Manten laughed. "Oh, so desperate. So foolish. This is for every woman who ever hated me. How do you like it? Dying just like all the other women who would never so much as look at me?" he snarled.

Kagome's lips bumped around uselessly, a trail of saliva drawing down her chin as Manten shook her head several times. Her fingers felt swollen and disconnected from her body, and her scratching had become useless. She was doing no more than lightly brushing her fingertips down his cheek desperately, like a desiccated creature coming to a dry riverbed looking for water in the cracks, as if searching for something even though she knew she would not find it.

"And now you'll die here, dirty in the mud, like an animal. Worthless. Your fingers are already getting cold." Her hands fell away from his face, dropping into the mud limply, weightlessly, pale fingers blood-soaked and curling lightly.

Her body was no longer tingling at all anymore; there were no pinpricks of pain scattered across her face. The rain seemed to fade away, and the flashes of lightening were bright and slow in the sky, and silent. She was entirely cold.

"It's your own fault, bitch," Manten hissed to her as her eyes slowly searched for some focus. "If not for all the other women like you, maybe I wouldn't enjoy watching you die so much. But it's so addicting. Look at you! You can't even struggle anymore. You weakling. You weakling. You weakling bitch, I hate you."

His thumb pressed hard into her throat, but she could not feel it as his fingernail cut into the delicate skin. All she could feel was her panic going mute and cold in her chest like a dying bird whose feathers stopped fluttering. She could feel her heavy heart pumping slowly, so slowly, in her brain; struggling to get blood there, clean air there, throbbing against her skull. Gently, and then more gently it pumped, fighting to get life through her veins in the same way she had fought against the grasp around her throat. She could no longer even tremble.

"That's it, you beautiful, stupid, weakling girl. Just lie there uselessly and die like this. Die like the disgusting bitch you are," Manten murmured as Kagome's muscles went loose in her body, as she slumped down into the mud slowly, as her head leaned far back, dark hair pooling in the mud. Her neck was exposed as if she did not care that he had a grip on it, arching and thin. He went on talking, but Kagome's ears were ringing and his words were incomprehensible to her. She gave one last shutter of struggling, her body spasming uncontrollably for one brief second in a way that sent the world cloudily twirling about in her vision like it was falling away from her, spots of darkness dancing in front of her eyes like a hundred confused sunsets.

_"I... nu... ya..."_ she mouthed soundlessly as Manten laughed darkly, pulling his lips back in a snarl.


	9. Chapter 09: Almosts and What Ifs

**SLEEPING STRANGER**

**Chapter 09: Almosts and What-ifs**

SHIPPOU'S EYES FLICKERED open in time to see Kagome go limp in Manten's arms. Manten gave out a short bark of laughter, and then mumbled something low that Shippou could not catch. Then the little fox demon screamed his loudest wail, pushing air from deep within his lungs and ending on a sob while his heart beat fast in fear. He began racing across the crumbling meadow, back to Kagome, feeling as if he had failed. She was dead and it was he who had not been strong enough to protect her.

Inuyasha heard Shippou's heart-broken screech, and briefly turned to see how he and Kagome were holding up against the younger of the Thunder Brothers. When he caught sight of Kagome, pale and unmoving with unnervingly dark lips, his heart skipped a beat.

"Focus on me, half-breed!" Hiten snarled at his distracted enemy. Inuyasha's eyes glowed with loathing and a fear he had not known in a long time, and he delivered a quick kick to Hiten's head that knocked the thunder demon backwards. When he landed in the mud, he slipped his way over to where Manten was concentrating on Kagome, watching the life leave her with eyes lit aflame by fevered hunger. Before Manten could realize that he had attracted the half-demon's attention, Inuyasha thrust his sword into Manten's head ruthlessly.

Manten's hands loosened around Kagome's neck, and she fell into the mud as she slipped out of his grasp, head rolling into the mud heedlessly.

"Shippou!" Inuyasha called, voice strained and accented with panting. "Prot'ct Kag'me!" he ordered in a voice slurred with exhaustion as blood and sweat dripped down his face. He retracted his sword from Manten's head, leaving the thunder demon to stumble backward senselessly, limbs suspended as he fell as if looking for one last embrace. Shippou nodded and sat beside Kagome with a little hand against her cheek, looking solemn and brave at once as he tried to dry the tears in his eyes while he trembled like twinkling star.

"Y-you... bastard..." Hiten murmured, wide-eyed as he watched Manten's mouth bubble and gurgle with black, thick blood. The younger brother shuddered once, looked blindly up at his older brother with distant eyes, and offered the barest hint of a pure smile.

"I am glad," he whispered. "I am glad I was no one's brother but yours."

While Hiten rushed forward to cradle his dying brother in his arms, letting out a heart-broken howl, Inuyasha pulled his cloak off and moved back to Kagome. He wrapped her up warmly in his cloak, brushing her hair behind her ears and wiping her face and neck clean of saliva and blood and mud. He could feel her pulse in her wrist when he sought it out, thin and unsure like a careful bird, and his heart filled with relief that she would live.

"Shippou, if something happens," Inuyasha mumbled to the little fox demon who stood beside him. "If something happens, I need you to get Kagome out of here." Shippou could only nod.

"You will pay for this..." Hiten said in a low, dangerous voice. "No one will get away with this!"

Inuyasha laid Kagome back down in the mud, where she looked like a pale, broken doll, rain pouring down over her, and Shippou put his hand back against her cool cheek.

"Try me," Inuyasha growled, bearing his sword before him to deflect another lightening bolt that Hiten sent sailing towards him. He sprung at the thunder demon, and they chased each other through the storm with their weapons cutting through the air finely in vicious, bloody strokes, calling out in high shrills and dribbling cries.

"Sh-Shippou..." Kagome whispered in a pained, scratchy voice. The fox demon sat up rigidly and smiled brightly at her as her eyes flickered for a moment, watching everything that happened as it went by her.

"Kagome! You're alright!" he exclaimed, looking happier. "Oh, you're alright!"

"Yes," she whispered lightly. After a moment more of watching Inuyasha fight with Hiten, she said, "We have to help Inuyasha in some way."

"How can we? Kagome, you're hurt!" he said as she painfully pulled herself up into a delicate sit, her hands rubbing her sore throat tenderly as she winced.

"I need you to do me a favor," she whispered hoarsely. "Just once more, can you turn into a bow?"

"Kagome!" Shippou said. "Why? You're hurt! You can't shoot a bow! And what if you accidentally hit Inuyasha?"

"Listen, Shippou. You need to trust me," she explained, coughing lightly and trembling. Shippou's little tail shivered behind him, but he pulled out two leaves. One he turned into the straightest arrow he could manage, and one he used to turn himself into a bow. Kagome pulled the bow up against her weak body. Steadying her limp fingers as best she could, she nocked the arrow and pulled the string tight, trying to keep her fingers from shaking. She aimed it high up into the sky, at a dark storm cloud that did not move with the others. She freed the arrow and stuttered backward to the ground, an arm weakly flying out to brace herself, as she blearily watched with heavy-lidded eyes.

The arrow pierced the unmoving cloud, which rumbled with thunder when it was struck, and then it scattered on the breeze as smaller rain clouds, and it went racing away across the sky with the others. Hiten howled furiously and turned a burning, wild look towards Shippou and Kagome.

"Kagome! What did you _do!"_ Shippou yelped beside her, terrified by Hiten's ferocious look.

"Hiten was drawing his lightening bolts from that cloud," she rasped out. "I scattered it."

"You _bitch!"_ Hiten crowed, hurling his trident at Kagome before Inuyasha could take another strike. The trident erupted into a flaming bolt of electricity, splitting with crackling thunder, which struck at Kagome and Shippou perfectly before enveloping them in a growing fire as they huddled together in wake of its approach. "Burn, you bitch..." Hiten hissed with a snarl.

"You _fucking bastard!"_ Inuyasha roared, diving at Hiten. The delirious thunder demon used his claws to defend himself, swiping at the enraged half-demon who charged at him. There was no way, Inuyasha knew, no way that Kagome could have lived through what had just happened. He hollered and crashed his sword down hard, a blow barely deflected by Hiten's claws.

Fury and anger and the immense chill of loss filled Inuyasha, and a new scent of power seemed to call to him. Following nothing but his instincts and his rage, Inuyasha sliced along some unseen force, at some strange smell; at the edge of the wind his blade sliced something deep. A huge, rumbling explosion followed, sounding out over the thunder like a triumphant call of some great beast, brightening the dark world, and it engulfed Hiten as his eyes widened.

When the dust had cleared, leaving behind the rain and rumbling thunder, Hiten lay dead and charred on the ground, eyes still wide and unseeing, with his Shikon shards glowing purple on the ground beside him. Inuyasha swallowed thickly and slowly, brokenly, as he collected them. Emptily, he turned to where Kagome and Shippou had been, slowly like a prisoner turning around his cell.

They were standing now, a blue, ethereal light softly surrounding them and flickering sharply at the edges, like a candle's flame battling the wind. The rain curved around them, falling away in sheets of dust and ash. Shippou's eyes were closed in what looked like fear, and Kagome was exhausted.

"Thanks, Inuyasha..." Kagome whispered weakly, smiling a little.

"Ka... Kagome..." Inuyasha murmured as the wind picked up, pulling the rain along with it in icy waves, stinging as it lashed against his skin. "W-wait! Don't go, Kagome!" he said in a panic, rushing forward and clamping Kagome to his body as the blue light boomed and burst up around the group, spraying pebbles and dust around them in a blast, whipping through their hair and temporarily blinding everyone.

"Uh... Inuyasha? Go where? I can't leave about twenty feet of you, remember?" Kagome rasped into his chest.

"What?" Inuyasha said, releasing Kagome and holding her shoulders for a moment to examine her. "I thought you were dead..."

"Sorry to disappoint," she whispered, shifting Shippou in her arms.

"What the hell was that damn blue light?" Inuyasha demanded, face reddening in embarrassment. He glared at the both of them and pushed Kagome away from himself, not rough enough to throw her to the ground but enough to let her know he was upset.

"My fox fire," Shippou said weakly. "I did my best and protect Kagome, just like you said." While Shippou explained, Kagome picked up the fallen Shikon shards, and took Hiten's from Inuyasha's hand, all of which she tucked away in her sash as they glowed purely against her palm.

"Shippou," she whispered. "Can I have your shard now?"

"Sure!" he chirped happily, giving Kagome the shard he had held in his pocket.

"Hey, are you alright? You don't look so well," Kagome said to Inuyasha, brow knit with concern.

"I'm fine," Inuyasha spat scathingly. "Now let's go."

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"YOU KNOW," KAGOME told Shippou with a wide yawn, her voice recovering slowly but still hoarse and broken. "I don't think I ever want to see another thunder storm in my entire life."

"Me, either!" Shippou agreed with his tail shivering at the thought. He bounced around on her shoulder momentarily. "Man, when Hiten threw that trident at us..."

"I thought we would die for sure," Kagome finished as she ducked beneath a low-hanging branch that tried to snag her muddy hair. "Scary. And thunder storms are terrible enough to begin with."

"Yeah," Shippou agreed with another shudder. Inuyasha walked ahead of them on the twisting forest trail, which they had been following since they left the empty valley of the Thunder Brothers. The sun was now warming the horizon, pink and gold and orange, as the day started. Kagome had wanted to stop and take a break, but Inuyasha insisted that they go on to the town, and told her that she would be an old maid by the time they got to Kikyou if she had to stop every time she was injured.

"At least Inuyasha was there to save us," Kagome added, speaking up as loud as her voice could manage to be sure that Inuyasha caught the praise. He had been sulking since they had left the bodies of the Thunder Brothers behind, and Kagome knew there was hardly a better cure for his melancholy mood than a quick stroke to his ego. She was rewarded with a small flick of his ear.

"No kidding. For a half-demon, Inuyasha sure is strong!" Shippou proclaimed, hoping to get Inuyasha annoyed enough to fight with him.

"It doesn't mean a damn thing if I'm a half-demon or not, runt," Inuyasha grumbled tonelessly.

"Still, I'm glad he was there," Kagome told Shippou. "We couldn't have taken on the Thunder Brothers without him," she said, briefly touching her bruised and bloody neck as she recalled what had happened. Shippou whimpered.

"You two can shut up now," Inuyasha mumbled angrily. "They're dead, gone, and aren't going to come back. And no one's going to die."

"Well," Kagome said as she lost her temper. "Why are you in such a poor mood, then!"

"Because you two keep yammering away back there! You're going on and on about how scared you were-- I saved you, didn't I?"

"Yes, but... Inuyasha! If you'll please remember, I was nearly suffocated to death! You can't blame me for being afraid," Kagome said as Shippou clung frightfully to her back.

"But I still saved you!" Inuyasha growled weakly, hanging his head slightly.

"And I thanked you, didn't I? Or was that not good enough for you!" she barked. "What do you want from me!"

"Nothing!" Inuyasha yelled.

"Then why are you so mad at me?" she forced out, her voice growing hoarse again.

"I'm not mad at you!" Inuyasha roared, stamping his foot. "And stop hurting your voice!"

"If you're not mad at me, why are you acting like this?" Kagome wailed as best she could, claiming a step of ground between herself and Inuyasha. Shippou shivered and tried to hide himself away as the tension heated up. "Why are you acting so mean to me!"

"I thought I didn't save you in time!" Inuyasha responded before he realized what words poured from his lips. He turned sharply and began walking away again. "Get it, okay? So when you sit over there going on about how scared you are, it's just-- Nevermind! Just leave me the hell alone!"

Kagome rushed forward suddenly and pulled on his bangs. "Look at me!" she said. "Wait!"

"What now?" Inuyasha growled irately.

"Inuyasha..." Kagome said, her voice cracking from abuse. "Listen here," she said hoarsely. "I know you're strong. I know you're not going to let anything kill me. I know that because of everything we've gone through so far. I'll admit, I didn't trust you at first. But the other day in the forest, when you came back for me, and you took a blow for me... Inuyasha, I trust you now. I know you won't let anything bad happen as long as you can help it. But I was still afraid, because you can't be everywhere at once. You can't protect me from everything. And I wasn't just afraid for me. I was afraid for Shippou, and I was afraid for you, too."

"Keh," Inuyasha mumbled, snapping his head in the other direction. "I won't be done in so easily..."

"Of course," Kagome replied with a heavy sigh. "But I was still afraid. Manten was killing me, and Hiten was wild and you were bloody and tired."

"I'm fine. I'm not a weakling like you," Inuyasha insisted.

"Forget it," Kagome whispered bitterly. "Just forget it."

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INUYASHA GLANCED ACROSS the small wooden bedroom at Kagome, where she was sleeping on a mattress stuffed with hay. She was cleaned up and her neck had been bandaged, although she had complained ruthlessly that a bandage would do nothing for the bruises or her hurting voice. She had been very grumpy; worn out and recovering from fear, and he had agitated her during their trip. She had fallen asleep almost instantly after she had been bandaged, with Shippou curled up in her side comfortably, a ball of red hair and tail fluff that breathed regularly next to her, pressed up against the blankets tucked around her safely. He was glad that they had made it safely into town for the night.

The late afternoon sunlight curled into the room from a small window, soft and fading, but Inuyasha sat in a corner near the door where the light did not reach, watching his companions sleep, their bodies rise and fall calmly and untroubled, without really seeing them.

He loved Kikyou. She was kind and giving and supportive, and always calm. She had always been a constant in his life when the rest of the world went whirling by dizzily, leaving him alone and forgotten and forgetful. In all the confusion, she was his focus, because she had always been the same and always would be. _And isn't that love?_ Inuyasha would ask himself. That he felt connected to Kikyou by some invisible bond. That he would do almost anything for Kikyou. That Kikyou made his world turn. That Kikyou was the center of his life.

She _had_ been the center of his life, he corrected himself. Now she was far away, distant like a star, and not at the center anymore. She was flung out at the far edge of his life, and he was looking for her. He was going to bring her back and make her the center of his life again.

Maybe, he thought, maybe Kagome was currently the center of his life. Everything immediate was for her, because of her. His temper and the pace he set his walk; his conversation and for whose honor he now leapt to defend; that was all for Kagome now. After all, it was Kagome who was by his side night and day now, not Kikyou. He could not linger on lost loves when he had some new duty to perform.

Before Kikyou, Inuyasha had never had many friends. He was gruff and mean and loud and half-demonic, and no one would befriend him for that. He had learned to snap at anyone who came too close, like a cornered fox in a hole. Like the lonesome thing he was.

When Kagome had entered his life, warm and loud and self-assured, everything seemed to shift. She did not have Kikyou's grace, nor Kikyou's self-control, but she had stayed by his side in a way that not even Kikyou had done. And that had been enough for him at first. It made his heart warm up a bit, softened, strengthened, that she stayed by his side despite everything that he was. Then he had learned she stayed with him only because of a magic spell, and that she had not told him even that much because she had not trusted him. He lashed out, thrashed out, and fought back the only way he knew how-- with blind and empty threats made up by a hurt heart that fell from his lips as easy as his breath as he went grabbing for anything, absolutely anything, that would justify his anger.

But in that dark and raining morning, under thunder clouds that growled like beasts and through sheets of ice cold rain breaking as it hit them, when he had turned and watched her go limp in Manten's hands, pale white like the crests of the sea and so unmoving-- and then later, when he saw that treacherous fire engulf her and cloud around her and drown her out of sight, as he saw her eyes widen and her lips fall open in a silent scream, as her exposed and blood-smeared neck tried to lift her head higher, his heart had wanted to stop with cold fear. He had been swept away by the undertow of loss, feeling she must be dead. That she was gone forever, and it had been his fault. That he worried for her so much made him realize she had become his friend, a companion.

On the walk to the village, he wondered when Kagome had become his friend at all, while he had been so callous towards her at first. He could recall her darting eyes as she thought, thinking quickly for a scheme; and her little smile that tipped up further one side of her face than another; the tilt of her head when she looked up at him meaningfully, pleadingly, or defiantly; her small fist hitting him out of frustration, not hurting him at all but strange in that it did not make him angry; the feeling of her thin fingers against his back when she coiled them up in his shirt to keep from being left behind; the way she had come to him when she was afraid.

Maybe there was no sure point when she suddenly became his friend; maybe she had never crossed some invisible line. Maybe friendship and affection were too gradual to be marked.

Inuyasha's gaze cleared and focused in the hazy evening light as Kagome sighed sleepily and rolled over on her side, nearly crushing Shippou. He snorted while Shippou kicked free and routed himself, half-dreaming, to a safer place by Kagome's head and slumbered soundly again.

When he had seen Kagome surrounded by the blue light of an enchanted fire, he had stopped thinking. He had just acted; he had only done what his body bid him do, and his body had told him to protect her. So he had protected her, and he would go on protecting her.


	10. Chapter 10: Just Because I Say I Can

**SLEEPING STRANGER**

_NOTE: ALL chapters have been re-written. Most of the stuff is still the same, but if you notice something seems off in this or a following chapter, you can e-mail me and I'll tell you what I changed, since I imagine most people aren't going to want to go back and re-read this. :P_

**Chapter 10: Just Because I Say I Can**

"WOW," KAGOME MURMURED softly, watching as plumes of cooling smoke and ash rose up into the darkening evening sky, banding over the stars and the slimming moon like hazy storm clouds. Inuyasha, who stood next to her, flicked an ear toward the sound of creaking wood as the eave of a roof crumbled to the ground with an ashy groan.

"What the hell happened here?" Inuyasha asked brashly. A sudden wind stirred hot ash across their faces, and the gentle, swelling smoldering of the ruined village began to recede like a timid creature returning to its home, slow and cautious. Shippou teetered on Kagome's shoulder and shuttered in fear.

"It was the strangest thing," a small voice from the ground began. Inuyasha, Kagome, and Shippou all looked down to the gritty cobbled road to see that Myouga was there, tapping his tiny fingers together and looking both afraid and distracted. Kagome recalled that Kaede had said Myouga would attempt to meet with them again during their journey, but she had not thought he would be waiting for them, nor that they would see him again so soon.

"What was the strangest thing?" Kagome asked. "What happened here?"

In a subdued voice, Myouga ventured to say, "I'm not sure exactly, but I feel certain that this tragedy is connected in some way with a little girl who came into the village earlier this day. She was strange, strange indeed. The town went up in flame just nearly an hour after her arrival."

"A little girl? What does she have to do with all this?" Kagome questioned quietly as Shippou pressed closer to her warm neck when the gentle ash stirred in the wind again. "Surely she can't have burned this place down."

"She was so strange," Myouga repeated. "I'm not sure if she is responsible, but I'm sure she is connected. She was completely pale, from her empty silver eyes, to her white hair, to her pale flesh. She wore two white lilies in her hair, I believe. She spoke not a word that I heard. The strangest thing of all was the mirror she carried... or at least, it looked like a mirror at first, but I suppose it has some kind of enchantment over it, as it showed no reflection in the surface. She must be connected in some way."

"Old man, just because she's creepy doesn't mean she's automatically responsible," Inuyasha replied.

"I have no other leads," Myouga offered. "I would suggest looking for her, perhaps she knows something if she is not directly involved. This was no normal fire."

"Do you even think she's still alive?" Shippou asked in a fragile, thin voice as his tail shivered against Kagome's hair.

"Possibly," Myouga said. Shippou squeaked as he heard a deep, somber wailing pass over the wind from the darkened forest, full and old and unbroken.

"What was that?" he whispered out, picking anxiously at his tunic when the howl faded.

"Wolves," Inuyasha answered him tonelessly. "They're probably worked up from the fire." Shippou cried out again and danced around Kagome's shoulders as he tried to peer out into the trees from the safety of his friends' company.

"Um... Inuyasha?"

"What?" Inuyasha barely gave Kagome a glance as he slowly surveyed the area once more, keeping his eyes sensitive for movement and catching only the glances of rippling shadows as burned wood fell in charred heaps to the ground.

"What are we going to do now? I mean, I'll do a burial rite, tomorrow in the sun... but what do we do tonight?"

"I guess we just stay here. There's bound to be some place to stay, and at least we don't have to pay for a room tonight."

"I don't want to stay here!" Shippou shrieked, coiling around Kagome's neck. "What about ghosts and evil spirits?"

Inuyasha grunted carelessly. "No big deal. Kagome's a priestess, right? She can take care of that kind of crap."

Kagome glared up at Inuyasha. "Not without a bow, I can't! I knew we should've stopped for weapons in Mixlevee as soon as we arrived." Kagome crossed her arms over her chest.

"Oh yeah?" Inuyasha snapped. "We were chased out of town by some crazy fox-hunters after Shippou before we even found the inn. We should boot the kid right here, right now."

"No!" Shippou wailed, clinging to Kagome's hair.

"Don't be ridiculous," Kagome warned, cutting her glare short to watch as another strip of wood gave away and crumbled to the ground. "I guess we'll just buy a new bow next chance we get," she added softly.

"Let's find some place to sleep," Inuyasha insisted.

"I don't want to sleep here!" Shippou whined once again, looking up at Inuyasha pleadingly.

"Would you rather sleep out in the woods with the wolves? Go on, I'm not stopping you," Inuyasha offered. He began a slow walk across the cobbled stones of the village road, air heavy with ash brushing past him in coils. Kagome automatically followed him, with Shippou quivering on her shoulder, and Myouga hopped silently along at Inuyasha's heels with caution, peeking around the town as they passed charred planks of wood, bent rungs of metal from wheels and halter-clasps, and stones covered with gritty ash and burn scars.

"There aren't even any bodies left," Shippou whispered in Kagome's ear as he looked sadly down at a black heap of wood.

"It's best that way," Kagome whispered back to him with a hooded voice. "For us and for them."

"Your bandage is still on tight, right?" Inuyasha asked over his shoulder. "If it gets infected, I'm not waiting around for you to get better."

"Inuyasha, I'm not a baby. It's on just fine."

"Keh," Inuyasha mumbled as he poked his head into a half-standing barn. He backed away and continued on through the village.

"You know," Kagome spoke suddenly as Inuyasha pulled back a piece of wall to a house that was standing partially up against the deep, smoky sky. "What if that girl's still around somewhere, and she really is connected to the fire? Is it safe to stay here tonight?"

"Hey, listen," Inuyasha snapped suddenly. "Before we got here, you were pouting about how tired you were, how I never let you stop for breaks, yadda yadda Miss Grumpypants. I'm sleeping right here tonight because I'm sure as hell not carrying all of you to wherever it is we're going next."

"It was just a thought," Kagome mumbled, narrowing her eyes angrily. "And besides, I'm wearing a long tunic, not pants, so I'm not a grumpypants."

"I'm surprised you're not complaining about being cold," Inuyasha retorted. "Even Shippou has the sense to wear pants under his tunic."

Kagome growled low as she followed Inuyasha into the house. She coughed lightly as the dry, heavy scent of smoke it held in the cracks of the wood and the faded, blackened threads of the rug seeped down into her lungs.

"I can't breathe," Kagome moaned. "How can I sleep if I can't even breathe?"

"Open a window or something," Inuyasha ordered.

"Oh, that's real nice, genius," Kagome barked. "There aren't any windows. Half the wall is missing."

"Then shut up and go to bed."

"You're such a bully, you know that?"

"You insist on reminding me every chance you get. Now sleep there," he directed as he pointed out a low-backed couch that was mostly intact, singed and fringed but otherwise stable.

"Why do I put up with you?" Kagome mumbled as Shippou sighed. She warily arranged herself on the couch, with Shippou tucked against her chin and Myouga curled up in the cushions, and tried to fall asleep as the scent of smoke hung around her like a veil and ash settled against her cheeks and on her eyelashes.

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INUYASHA HAD NOT meant to fall asleep that night. He had intended to remain awake and guard his slumbering companions, where they slept up on the couch stirring from time to time and coughing. But as the thinning moon worked its way high in the center of the sky, glaring down from among scattered stars, a deep sleep found him and swept over him. His breath, and the breath of his companions, grew progressively slower and shallower, unlittered by coughing from the smoke, and their sleep deepened as the night wore on.

Some time later, a dark-haired woman appeared in the doorframe, and behind her stood five empty-eyed people who might have otherwise been normal villagers. Their irises and pupils had disappeared and the whites of their eyes glowed dully and glassy in the clean moonlight, and their feet barely brushed the earth as they stood in the air above it.

The dark-haired woman entered the house. Where she stepped, a deep chill seemed to follow, and the empty-eyed villagers followed her mechanically into the room and spread out near the door like sentinels in the night.

As the dark-haired woman stepped to each of the house's slumbering guests, she brushed gentle, cold fingers against their faces: first Inuyasha, in the corner of the room, whose head turned in his sleep away from her touch. And then she went to Shippou, who slept through the caress with no inclination that he had felt anything at all. The dark-haired woman reached delicately out for Kagome's cheek, but her hand was thrown backwards as if by a blast of sudden air. She paused that way, with her arm leaned upwards, with her white, curling fingers poised near her shoulder.

"A priestess," she whispered with a small smirk gathering dark and cold on her lips. She nodded once and extended her arm again, just above where Kagome's body lay motionless. The dark-haired woman flicked her wrist and Kagome ascended into the air, leaving Shippou asleep on the couch as her neck arched backward, unsupported. The dark-haired woman gave no hint of any emotion as she stepped away from the couch and towards the door, where the moonlight spilled in and met the edges of light cast in from the broken portion of the wall. As the dark-haired woman stepped out into the town, the five villagers mutely followed after her with their empty eyes, and Kagome went along behind her. In her sleep, Kagome could feel the painful pull of her binding spell leashing her to Inuyasha, but her slumber was so deep that she could not be roused by it. Her body went on following the dark-haired woman, still and hardly drawing breath from the ashen air.

The five villagers, flanked at the dark-haired woman's sides like loyal companions, followed placidly without complaint. In the darkness skirting sharply around the wreckage, a shadow moved fleetingly, like a pulse, but the dark-haired woman did not see it.

In the cottage where he had been left, Inuyasha blinked awake suddenly, as if leaving behind a strange nightmare. After a moment in which he overcame his confusion, looking for answers to explain his surroundings, he stood slowly from where he had been slumped asleep in the house's corner. His eyes roamed over the room, to where Shippou slept deeply with Myouga at his side, and where Kagome's body had left a clean mark like a halo in the couch where the ash had fallen around her. His eyes widened and he raced from the house, out into the street.

"Kagome!" he called out. "Kagome?" His heart thumped. Only several short nights ago, he had promised to protect her. And now she was gone.

He quieted when he caught sight of her just as the dark-haired woman disappeared around a bend in the road, with Kagome trailing behind. He growled and drew his sword, and went running down the roughly grained street, his steps leaving footprints in the dried ash.

"Hey! Hey, you bitch! Get your ass back here!" Inuyasha roared as he sprinted after Kagome's shadow, while a different, unseen shadow silently moved its lips in the shape of a curse and went running soundlessly in the darkness.

The dark-haired woman turned slowly to face Inuyasha as he came around the corner with his sword laid out, gleaming cold in the moonlight, before him. Inuyasha yelled out in fury and struck his weapon down at her. The woman stumbled backward a step and hissed as she dodged the blow. Her empty-eyed villagers slumped to the ground, lifeless and still, and Kagome collapsed to the ground in a heap.

"If anything's wrong with her, you little bitch--!" Inuyasha threatened, swiping his sword down through the air again in a dangerous arch. The woman held up a thin rapier to block the strike as she drew it from a scabbard at her hip.

"Quiet, you'll wake them up," she ordered smoothly in a mocking voice.

Kagome stirred slowly, feeling sore all across her body and faintly dizzy as if her sleep had offered no rest. She could hear painful, screaming clashes of metal, and slowly her eyes focused on the moon glinting above her like a slitted cat's eye.

She sat up and gathered her senses about her in time to see Inuyasha fly at the dark-haired woman, his yellow eyes alight with anger. The woman held her rapier up to protect herself once more from the blow. Another metallic cry sounded out and the sappier shattered into steel splinters, thrown out across the night in the falling moonlight. They clipped and clattered to the ground with a dainty sound like music, shimmering. The woman's dark eyes widened, her lips parted, and then she threw her hand up into the air and flung it outward.

Inuyasha yelled out in surprise as he soared backwards as if caught by a sudden gust of air. The woman drew up her pale fingers in a tight coil just as Inuyasha landed feet away from her on the old cobbled road, and his eyes emptied while a wide wound erupted in his throat with a burst of bright blood, flecking out over the stones in thick drops. He gasped one tattered breath of air and then lay silent on the ground, the shadow leapt from the darkness, and Kagome screamed in horror.

Kagome pushed herself up from the ground, weak and shaking with fear, and ran to where Inuyasha lay unmoving on the ground with his sword drawn out on the stones, looking so weak and frail beside him, like an old piece of bent iron. She clutched to the front of Inuyasha's tunic shirt desperately, still screaming out. Behind her, a heavy voice chanted methodically, but she could not hear it. The voice went on chanting, words pouring from a young priest's lips. His eyes were full and dark and his movements light and quick, and as the dark-haired woman swore and flung her hands about and cast her magic spells down to earth, they slipped like rain drops in the sky around him and shattered to the ground like ice drops.

Kagome saw none of this as she leaned forward, hardly realizing as tears dripped down her face in pearls reflecting the moonlight, disappearing in Inuyasha's shirt. She put a shaking hand near Inuyasha's parted lips, feeling for breath and finding nothing. She pressed her ear against his chest and frantically listened for a heart beat, a pulse of life beneath the flesh.

"Inuyasha!" she yelled out at him, her voice trembling and full of fear and pain, sharp and cold as it echoed out beneath the stars. "Inuyasha, wake up!" she ordered sharply, her voice cracking off at the end with a hard break. Blood poured dark from his throat and stuck in hot smears to her face and fingers as she cried and wailed, pressed against his chest and looking for a heart beat with blind, wild hope and far wilder fear. Uselessly, she pulled herself up from him and untied the sash around her waist. The Shikon shards went clinking down to the ground, gathering in the cracks of the stones among splinters of the woman's sappier, and the purse of coins that Kaede had given her spilled and emptied around her bare ankles with soft chattering.

Metal sang out behind her, full and high, and the heavy voice continued its chanting, and the woman from time to time burst out a frustrated cry.

Kagome still did not hear any of this, or even remember that there was a woman behind her, as she pressed her sash against the wound in Inuyasha's neck. Tears rolled down her cheek hotly, brushing burning trails on her skin, and she felt no struggle of life under his skin. She slumped down once more, leaning over his body and allowing her head to lay against his unmoving chest as blood seeped through the fabric and warmed her shaking fingertips.

The world slowed and seemed to stop around her, cold and far away, as the heavy ache of loss settled over her like a sickness and made her tears feel feverish as they fell more and more slowly. Her fingers coiled into Inuyasha's tunic shirt while her other hand still pressed the sash down against his throat. Her eyes closed tightly and the tears began to fade away, until they were trembling drops that fell only from time to time from her eye lashes and washed the ash away.

"Oh, please," she whispered as her breath shuddered against him. The moonlight dripped down into her eyes and smeared brokenly against weariness and eyes still glassy and watery. "Please come back..." she whispered. "You can't just leave me... you just can't."

As she laid against him, weary, Kagome's memories and thoughts seemed to flee from her, leaving her as empty as a dreamless sleep, and she could only feel as if she was pressed against a stranger whose passing touched her much too deeply. She could not even recall her curse at all, or that there ever had been a curse laid over her. She could not recall why it made her so upset to see him lifeless beneath her. She could not remember what words, what moments, had passed between them. In her mind, everything slipped away like the smooth gliding of rain down windowpanes. There were no burned villages or captured priestesses. There was no strange world to which she suddenly belonged, plucked from the safe cradle of her own time and her own world. There was no Inuyasha. Nothing was there but the aching, and the lifeless body beneath her belonging to a spirit she suddenly could not recall, and then an overwhelming loneliness.

Metal stopped clashing and the voice stopped chanting.

"You can't leave me..." Kagome whispered again, knowing only that aching. "You just can't leave me..."

"She's gone," a voice said from behind her. Kagome's head snapped up and she turned around in time to see a priest approach where she laid hunched over Inuyasha's body. She had forgotten there had ever been a woman, and she had not seen the priest as he fought when Inuyasha fell. The priest who stood above her, towering and dark in the night, wore a sincere and patient look. He was leaning against a finely crafted staff with a holy symbol knotted in the center, dark gold, and he looked placid and tranquil. A drop of sweat rolled down his temple, looking misplaced on his solemn brow.

"What did you say?" Kagome murmured, as if everything was happening in a slow and tragic dream.

"She's gone," the priest repeated to her. Kagome closed her eyes calmly and put the side of her head against Inuyasha's chest once more, wishing for a sound of life; a heart beat, a gasp of air, a whisper. Anything that would bring him back, and not leave her mourning for a stranger.

"So is he," she mumbled brokenly, pressing her hot face into Inuyasha's shirt. Suddenly it all came back to her, aimless memories looking for a home, and filled her up full again. Her sobs poured down her face, hot and new and painful in her chest and her pulse pounded against her brain. "He's just gone..."


End file.
